to touch a whale
My first stop across the border of Mexico was Puertecitos. I learned about Puertecitos because when I was cleansing at a hot spring near the Salton Sea I met a wonderful man named Jason who connected me with another wonderful man named Phil and this is how VAN LIFE works .. you follow the connections and get exactly to where you need to go.
Phil warmly welcomed my newly dusted Mexico van ( Ixchel ) with a warm heart and a safe place to park , with views that are indescribable. I tried to capture the magic of the Sea of Cortez below, but I will tell you this now : Baja, Mexico is a non-negotiable for every adventurous soul.
can you find me ? : )
Every day I would walk down my backyard (a huge hill filled with quartz and volcanic rock), take my Beluga surfboard into the Sea, paddle out as far as my arms could take me, sit, sing, and swim with the birds.
The white pelicans were especially symbolic for me. When I began my van life journey almost 6 months ago, I parked at the Lake of the Ozarks in my home of Missouri and I found THOUSANDS of white pelicans ready to fly SOUTH.
We found each other again.
The salt in Baja and the Sea of Cortez is so dense - it’s an outdoor float tank - taking all emotion or toxicity, alchemizing it into freedom and peace. Energetic cleansing as often as needed, provided by Mother Earth - free of charge. The hot springs here are DIVINE.
With as much change as I have been going through, the energetic cleanses are a necessity. Nothing is a coincidence, and nothing is chance. I was being surrounded by all that I needed from those who do not have shape or form in this physical world. The more I trust my impulses, the more I find the abundance that follows : all my needs and MORE are always being met, usually before my logical mind understands what is happening.
On my third night in Puertecitos, I saw a giant white figure in the distance. It looked like an old fisherman’s boat, so I asked Phil what the story was. He told me that it was not a boat, but indeed the HEAD OF A WHALE.
This Whale had washed up on the shore many years ago, taking 4 months to decompose completely and with no obvious cause of death.
My heart ran to her, yearning to have a conversation with this ancestor of the sea, wanting to know her story, wishing to find more ways to help save the oceans from our human-ness.
I wrote a poem for her HERE
and I grieved.
The sadness I felt was so deep and intense : on one hand I accept the natural cycles of life & death, but there are only so many stories of “washed up dolphins” and “more beached whales” that one can hear before it is obvious that it is caused by our ignorance to the life that exists in the water, which is just as important as the life that we ourselves live.
The Sea of Cortez is just one of many examples on how an abundant ecosystem can be drastically impacted by just a few decades in the hands of those who refuse to see reciprocity : overfishing and pollution have changed the waters so quickly, leaving nothing but vacant fish markets and ghost towns screaming “LIFE WAS ONCE HERE”.
I left Puertecitos with so much on my heart and mind : my role in the world, what I can do to help save the seas, how to educate myself and others on the issues that are inevitable … and I drove to Guerrero Negro.
Phil wouldn’t tell me much except “WHALES” and “YOU HAVE TO GO TO GUERRERO NEGRO”.
And of course… you know me and whales. <3
I gave myself plenty of time to arrive before sunset and parked at Palapa 6. The 6 looked like a G and for reasons that won’t make sense I just knew I was in the perfect place, and that this next day was about to be a day of pleasure and goodness. I woke up early the next morning, bought my ticket for a morning with the whales, and alongside Rafael and a few new amigos, started off in a boat named SIRENITA.
This specific place, Ojo de Liebre (or .. eye of FREEDOM) .. is the main home for Grey Whales to give birth year after year. They stay in these warm, safe waters long enough for the baby to grow up and be safe on the journey all the way up towards Alaska - a very long swim indeed.
Little did I know how much JOY this day would bring. I don’t know how else to share except by having you go watch this video HERE, knowing that to touch a whale was an absolute dream come true… a dream that I had written about and asked my angels for so many times… knowing that I just wasn’t ready yet but the day would come.
Her name was Trixie … she stayed with us for an hour, and she let me see her eyes again and again - one at a time.
Right eye (belly roll)
left eye (belly roll)
”I SEE YOU” she said.
”I SEE YOU” I sang back.
“HERE ARE YOUR NEW EYES” she said.
“THANK YOU” I said back, tears rolling down my face.
I told her how sorry we were for hurting her, I asked her what can we do to change things.
FORGIVE.
FORGIVE.
FORGIVE.
Nothing else but now matters - not our past, not our future. But pure awareness of the NOW.
”I LOVE YOU” I said.
Her reply was a blow hole of water in my face.
A rainbow came with it.
I laughed, squealed, screamed… every emotion was felt.
I wrote about this in my book, The Process, but many times we are stuck on being heard.
This is no longer a time of speaking or preaching… This is a time of VIBRATIONAL CHANGE. Our ability to be aware, to be present, and to be radically accountable for our energy is about an intentional shift in concsiousness.
One that does not require anything but to BE.
And this is how we MOVE the world.
xx
em
