The following was sent to me by a friend in Chicago..I thought it was very moving.






The Whale
If you read the front page story of
the SF Chronicle,
you would have read about a female
humpback whale
who had become entangled in a spider
web of crab traps
and lines.
She was weighted down by hundreds of
pounds of traps that caused
her to struggle to stay afloat. She
also had hundreds of yards of
line rope wrapped around her body,
her tail, her torso, a line
tugging in her mouth.
A fisherman spotted her just east of
the FarraloneIslands
(outside the Golden Gate) and
radioed an environmental group for help.
Within a few hours, the rescue team
arrived and determined that she was
so bad off, the only way to
save her was to dive in and untangle her
...
a very dangerous proposition.
One slap of the tail could kill a
rescuer.
They worked for hours with curved
knives and eventually freed her.
When she was free, the divers say
she swam in what seemed like joyous circles.
She then came back to each and every
diver, one at a time, and nudged them,
pushed gently around-she thanked
them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of
their
lives.
The guy who cut the rope out of her
mouth says her eye was
following him the whole time, and he
will never be the same.
May you, and all those you love,
be so blessed and fortunate
to be surrounded by people
who will help you get untangled
from the things that are binding
you.
And, may you always know the joy
of giving and receiving gratitude.
I pass this on to you, my friend, in
the same spirit.