Love Never Dies A Natural Death But...

Waves Gurgled and Giggled at Us

(From Anita Nair's book of Poems, Malabar Mind; Poem: A Brief Respite)

Dolphin Altruism

"Several years ago, in the Gulf of Akaba, a British tourist was rescued by three dolphins from sharks. Near the Sinai Peninsula, a ship captain had stopped his boat so several passengers could watch dolphins playing. Three of the passengers decided to swim with them, and one stayed a little longer than the others. To his horror, he was bitten by a shark – and more were coming. Suddenly, three dolphins placed themselves between the tourist and the sharks, smacking the water with tails and flippers, and drove the sharks off so the man could be rescued.

In 2004, a group of swimmers were confronted by a ten-foot great white shark off the northern coast of new Zealand. A pod of dolphins “herded” them together, circling them until the great white fled. There are several other examples from the area of Australia of similar incidences.

In another case in the Red Sea, twelve divers who were lost for thirteen and a half hours were surrounded by dolphins for the entire time, repelling the many sharks that live in the area. When a rescue boat showed up, it appeared that the dolphin pod were showing them where the divers were; they leaped up in the air in front of the rescuers, jumping toward the lost people as if to lead the boat onward – as, according to old stories, they often did with endangered ships in treacherous water.

Because we can’t talk to dolphins, we can’t really fathom what their motives are in these situations. It is, however, very possible that they are indeed trying to help and protect fellow mammals in the ocean to safety. If this is true, it means that they are the only animals, besides humans, which show true altruism."

Source here

Cher Ami

A brave pigeon -- Cher Ami -- bent on performing its duty in a human war -- the madness that costed us a total of about 16, 000, 000 lives and about 20, 000, 000 wounded or maimed. It should teach us a lesson.

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"It’s late September of1918 in northern France. The war will end soon on November 11, but one last massive battle, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive is raging on. It’s one of the biggest conflicts of World War I, lasting 47 days until the Armistice. Over a million Allied soldiers are involved and over 25,000 Americans will die by the end of this battle.

A group of 500 American soldiers led by Major Charles Whittlesey were trapped in a small depression of a hill, surrounded by Germans. After the first day, only 200 of Whittlesey’s “lost battalion” were left. To make the situation even more FUBAR, their fellow Americans didn’t know their location and had begun firing shells at them.

Whittlesey sent out two messages by homing pigeon asking the Americans for help, but both pigeons were shot down. A final pigeon named Cher Ami was released [...]

As soon as Cher Ami flew up out of the brush, the Germans fired on him. It took him 25 minutes to fly through a rain of bullets the 25 miles back to Allied lines. When he arrived at his coop, he bad been shot in his breast and blinded in one eye. One leg was so badly shot it dangled by a tendon. The metal case carrying the life-saving message was still attached to that dangling leg. The Allies stopped firing shells at the Lost Battalion, and they were eventually able to break out of enemy territory to safety.

The surviving 197 men, whose lives had been saved by Cher Ami made sure that their little bird received the best medical care and carved him a tiny wooden leg to replace the one that was blown off. The French army awarded him their Croix de guerre medal for his bravery. Cher Ami became a famous hero, and he was personally seen off by General Pershing on his boat voyage back home to the states.

Cher Ami died less than a year later due to complications from his injuries. He was stuffed and is kept on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C."

Source

Dogs Help People With Their Grief

Sometimes during periods of grief, a nonjudgmental, comforting presence can be all it takes to lift someone’s spirits. A grief therapy dog is a specially trained dog that does just that: providing comfort in times of crisis, grief, or even disaster situations. They will offer individual care, emotional support, and compassionate listening to those affected by the loss of a loved one, as well as to responding workers or volunteers.

When tragedy strikes and people are working through their grief, the simple act of petting a dog can give comfort that no words can offer. They offer more than just a warm furry body; many dogs instinctually understand when someone needs comfort and offer it unconditionally. A grief therapy dog can improve therapeutic outcomes with calming effects, brightening of mood and increased motivation. These dogs have provided their care at grief counselling sessions in children’s schools or camps and, more recently, at funeral homes.

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Kalachakra (Cycles of Time)

The 33rd Kalachakra Festival, Ladakh - 3 to 14 July 2014

The word kalachakra means cycles of time, and the Kalachakra system presents three such cycles – external, internal and alternative. The external and internal cycles deal with time as we normally know it, while the alternative cycles are practices for gaining liberation from these two. Read more here.

Like, Love, In Love

...and being "In Love" is when you learn to walk that path between

the best and the worst either without expectation or with the hope that 

the worst will disappear and the best gets better; 

with the path becoming a stage of pleasant, engaging drama of togetherness