Fly Away

(Artist credit:  Jim Warren)

Those of us who are fans of the late John Denver, continue to be inspired by his call to environmental action and awareness.  The soul of his songs is a message to all souls:  to take care of your Earth and all that inhabit it.

One song that comes to mind for me right now in the midst of not just the Gulf oil spill disaster, but all the various other events taking place around the globe such as clubbing harp seals in Canada, the killing of whales and dolphins without conscience or remorse from Japan, the dumping of garbage into our local parks, beaches, rivers, and anywhere anyone is too lazy to wait for a trash can to dump it into.  That song is Fly Away.

John Denver speaks of how losing ourselves in the high rises can make you hungry for things you can't see, or life in the city makes one miss the sounds, sights, and smells of the sea.

Without nature feeding our souls, we are a lonely people.  Life teems from every pore in every facet related to all the nature around us, everywhere.  People seem to either forget that or take it for granted.

Imagine if you had no access to hiking trails to see a meadow blooming with spring flowers.  Or a walk on a sandy seashore to hear sea gulls all around you or whales and dolphins off in the distance.  Or not being able to dive among the bright and varied colors of the coral reefs that are currently endangered.  Or never seeing a beautiful butterfly flitting around your head in joy.  Or ceasing to ever witness a laughing child romping in the waves or ever picking up an insect to bring you home a "gift."

These are just a few small examples of the great world of nature.  And without it, we would truly be a very sad and depressed world.  Nature gives us life.  It feeds our spirits.  It gives us food.  It allows our eyes to rest on such amazing beauty that unless your soul is truly deadened, it makes your heart soar and sometimes brings happy tears to your eyes.  It inspires you to dance, fall in love, sing a song, write a story, or simply to just be.

Springtime is a season of hope and of renewal.  We are always looking for the spring, the sounds of laughter from children and the signs of love from people.

Will we ever see a day when the majority of humanity on our planet Earth cease to take her and her gifts for granted?  Or will the time come when it's too late to save her, and therefore too late to save ourselves?

Take some time to stop and smell a flower.  Walk barefoot in the grass or on a sandy beach.  Romp with your children and/or dogs in a park and watch the simple yet profound joy they don't take for granted.  Hike a mountain trail to a favorite spot and take a few moments of silence and drink in all that is surrounding you.  Dive into the ocean and say hello to all the colorful, rich, and vibrant life that shares this world with you.  Wave to a whale, dolphin, seal, shark, manatee, etc that you see in the great blue.

We are all part of this global ecosystem.  We should be giving thanks for it instead of continuing to destroy it in the name of temporary greed and profit.  After all, once our beautiful and precious Earth is exhausted with all of her gifts, all the greed and money in the world will not matter one iota.

The only place to Fly Away is here.  This is your home.  Please treat it as such and inspire others to love and respect it too.  Trust me she will return that a million times over.

Scientific Whale Slaughter - Yeah, Right

It's interesting that the Japanese do not eat a lot of whale meat, which is further indication of how unnecessary their whale hunts are. It's also interesting that they claim to not care what the rest of the world thinks about their whale hunting, and yet they are seemingly scrambling about, finding ways to use the whales to their maximum benefit (aka greed) while still calling it "scientific research."

A Japanese company says it will start offering whale curry in its takeaway business lunches, as the country pursues its controversial whale hunt in the Antarctic.

Read more here -> Beautiful whales to end up as $6 curry

"I'm getting so tired of the biased articles I read in Western newspapers each year at this time," says Dr Pastene, who supervises nine scientists studying whale samples at Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research.

It is the work his team does here that drives Japan's "scientific whaling" program, and in turn provokes international outrage. Invariably, he says, the substance of his research is lost amid invective from activists. "It's time someone told the truth," he insists.

Also:

This and other research, Japan's Fisheries Agency insists, is all carried out with the innocent aim of monitoring changes to environmental conditions and whale populations in the Antarctic. That could require "employing control of whale populations if needs be", the Government says more ominously in its whaling plan.

Read more here: Japan stands by its renewed 'scientific' whale slaughter

I'm sorry, maybe it's just me, but if so-called scientists like this are aiming to control our marine population in the "greater interest of the planet," I'd suggest we start with the human population. Is there a reason why we can't co-exist with our wildlife? Why is there such a need to drive or to do away with our animal kingdom? They are as much a part of our planet's ecosystem as we are, if not more so.

People move to the mountains and complain about the bears or raccoons invading their properties, their trash, etc. Hello? If you're going to live in the mountains, then you know better to expect that you're gonna see bears and whatnot. What right do we have to just push them out? The animals were there first.

People move to the beach and live within some master-planned community where the developers surround the property with a glass enclosure. So what happens? Birds fly into the glass and get killed. But that's okay because, ya know, the residents there want their views of the environment but they sure as hell don't want the wildlife. (A story on this is here: Glass Wall of Death Surrounds California Suburb)

You can't have your cake and eat it too. All wildlife on this planet are a crucial part of our ecosystem. We are not the end all, be all of this world and we need to stop acting like we are the only inhabitants of this tiny space in the universe we call Earth.

Mahalo,

Dolphin

Welcome to Eye of the Dolphin

Welcome to my new blog :-)

I actually have another blog at The Dolphin's Wink and have for about a year and half, but decided to create another blog back here on blogger. My reasons for doing this are mainly because I felt I was trying to put too much in one place, causing my blog to have the feel of going off in all sorts of different directions.

I will continue to keep The Dolphin's Wink focused on those projects I do that are earning me money online, such as affiliate marketing, skill gaming, and traffic exchanges.

Eye of the Dolphin will be more of a hobby thing for me, with a focus on my passion for environmental causes, marine mammal issues, and my love for dolphins and other marine wildlife. There will also be some focus on outdoor recreational activities I enjoy such as kayaking, as well as other things I feel passionate about such as animal rights, human rights, and debates on the issues of child abuse.

I have a bit of a liberal bent to my views on the world and of politics, so don't be surprised if I engage in a rant now and then about something our government does or doesn't do, that pisses me off.

I have no real monetary goals for this blog at this moment. I do have an Adsense account already and have implemented that here but have kept it small and hopefully non-intrusive. But for the moment, anything I do to earn money online will be mostly restricted to my original blog over at The Dolphin's Wink.

This still a work in progress, so some things may change, be added or removed, etc. I welcome feedback, comments, suggestions, etc. I also welcome links to places that relate to the topics I write about here and would be happy to do link exchanges if I feel it fits in with what I am working towards here. I don't want to create a long-assed list of links (lol) .. so if I decide to not include a permanent link in the sidebar, I'd still welcome sharing or highlighting a link within a blog post. Just leave me a comment here or contact me at my email address.

I am always on the look out for photos to share here and stories or news links to any of these topics I've mentioned here। So please don't be shy। I'll be glad to give credit and provide link-backs as warranted.

Mahalo,

Dolphin