Hi
i was sent this in an email, thought it was so nice, i decided to share with you

Hope you enjoy it.....
Love Molinda. xx

A Scuba Story


"Sometimes God lifts the veil that separates Heaven and earth, and gives us a little peek into what we have lost and what we can look forward to." This is definitely a keeper! Maranatha --


A great scuba diving story

This Magic Moment with a manta ray, by Jennifer Anderson, April 2005

It was like many Maui mornings, the sun rising over Haleakala as we greeted our divers for the day's charter. As my captain and

I explained the dive procedures, I noticed the wind line moving into Molokini, a small, crescent-shaped island that harbors a large reef. I slid through the briefing, then prompted my divers to gear up, careful to do everything right so the divers would feel confident with me, the dive leader.

The dive went pretty close to how I had described it: The garden eels performed their underwater ballet, the parrot fish grazed on the coral, and the ever-elusive male flame wrasse flared their colours to defend their territory. Near the last level of the dive, two couples in my group signalled they were going to ascend. As luck would have it, the remaining divers were two European brothers, who were obviously troubled by the idea of a "woman" dive master and had ignored me for the entire dive.

The three of us caught the current and drifted along the outside of the reef, slowly beginning our ascent until, far below, something caught my eye. After a few moments, I made out the white shoulder patches of a manta ray in about one hundred and twenty feet of water.

Manta rays are one of my greatest loves, but very little is
known about them. They feed on plankton, which makes them more delicate than an aquarium can handle. They travel the oceans and are therefore a mystery.

Mantas can be identified by the distinctive pattern on their
belly, with no two rays alike. In 1992, I had been identifying the manta rays that were seen at Molokini and found that some were known, but many more were sighted only once, and then gone.

So there I was... a beautiful, very large ray beneath me and my sceptical divers behind. I reminded myself that I was still trying to win their confidence, and a bounce to see this manta wouldn't help my case. So I started calling through my regulator, "Hey, come up and see me!" I had tried this before to attract the attention of whales and dolphins, who are very chatty underwater and will come sometimes just to see what the noise is about. My divers were just as puzzled by my actions, but continued to try to ignore me.

There was another dive group ahead of us. The leader, who was a friend of mine and knew me to be fairly sane, stopped to see what I was doing. I kept calling to the ray, and when she shifted in the water column, I took that as a sign that she was curious. So I started waving my arms, calling her up to me.

After a minute, she lifted away from where she had been riding the current and began to make a wide circular glide until she was closer to me. I kept watching as she slowly moved back and forth, rising higher, until she was directly beneath the two Europeans and me. I looked at them and was pleased to see them smiling. Now they liked me. After all, I could call up a manta ray!

Looking back to the ray, I realized she was much bigger than what we were used to around Molokini - a good fifteen feet from wing tip to wing tip, and not a familiar-looking ray. I had not seen this animal before. There was something else odd about her. I just couldn't figure out what it was.

Once my brain clicked in and I was able to concentrate, I saw deep V-shaped marks of her flesh missing from her backside. Other marks ran up and down her body. At first I thought a boat had hit her. As she came closer, now with only ten feet separating us, I realized what was wrong.

She had fishing hooks embedded in her head by her eye, with very thick fishing line running to her tail. She had rolled with the line and was wrapped head to tail about five or six times. The line had torn into her body at the back, and those were the V-shaped chunks that were missing.

I felt sick and, for a moment, paralyzed. I knew wild animals in pain would never tolerate a human to inflict more pain. But I had to do something.

Forgetting about my air, my divers and where I was, I went to the manta. I moved very slowly and talked to her the whole time, like she was one of the horses I had grown up with. When I touched her, her whole body quivered, like my horse would. I put both of my hands on her, then my entire body, talking to her the whole time. I knew that she could knock me off at any time with one flick of her great wing.

When she had steadied, I took out the knife that I carry on my inflator hose and lifted one of the lines. It was tight and
difficult to get my finger under, almost like a guitar string.
She shook, which told me to be gentle. It was obvious that the slightest pressure was painful.

As I cut through the first line, it pulled into her wounds.
With one beat of her mighty wings, she dumped me and bolted away. I figured that she was gone and was amazed when she turned and came right back to me, gliding under my body. I went to work. She seemed to know it would hurt, and somehow, she also knew that I could help. Imagine the intelligence of that creature, to come for help and to trust!

I cut through one line and into the next until she had all she could take of me and would move away, only to return in a moment or two. I never chased her. I would never chase any animal. I never grabbed her. I allowed her to be in charge, and she always came back.

When all the lines were cut on top, on her next pass, I went
under her to pull the lines through the wounds at the back of her body. The tissue had started to grow around them, and they were difficult to get loose. I held myself against her body, with my hand on her lower jaw. She held as motionless as she could. When it was all-loose, I let her go and watched her swim in a circle. She could have gone then, and it would have all fallen away. She came back, and I went back on top of her.

The fishing hooks were still in her. One was barely hanging on, which I removed easily. The other was buried by her eye at least two inches past the barb. Carefully, I began to take it out, hoping I wasn't damaging anything. She did open and close her eye while I worked on her, and finally, it was out. I held the hooks in one hand, while I gathered the fishing line in the other hand, my weight on the manta.

I could have stayed there forever! I was totally oblivious to
everything but that moment. I loved this manta. I was so moved that she would allow me to do this to her. But reality came screaming down on me. With my air running out, I reluctantly came to my senses and pushed myself away.

At first, she stayed below me. And then, when she realized that she was free, she came to life like I never would have imagined she could. I thought she was sick and weak, since her mouth had been tied closed, and she hadn't been able to feed for however long the lines had been on her. I thought wrong! With two beats of those powerful wings, she rocketed along the wall of Molokini and then directly out to sea!

I lost view of her and, remembering my divers, turned to look for them. Remarkably, we hadn't travelled very far. My divers were right above me and had witnessed the whole event, thankfully! No one would have believed me alone. It seemed too amazing to have really happened. But as I looked at the hooks and line in my hands and felt the torn calluses from her rough skin, I knew that, yes, it really had happened.

I kicked in the direction of my divers, whose eyes were still
wide from the encounter, only to have them signal me to stop and turn around. Until this moment, the whole experience had been phenomenal, but I could explain it. Now, the moment turned magical. I turned and saw her slowly gliding toward me. With barely an effort, she approached me and stopped, her wing just touching my head. I looked into her round, dark eye, and she looked deeply into me. I felt a rush of something that so over-powered me; I have yet to find the words to describe it, except a warm and loving flow of energy from her into me.

She stayed with me for a moment. I don't know if it was a
second or an hour. Then, as sweetly as she came back, she lifted her wing over my head and was gone. A manta thank-you.

Hi Molinda, I just loved it, thanks
Wilson

Momo,
your story left me in tears of gratitude - thank you so much for putting that lovely happening into our reach.

You have just explained to all who read our posts why I work with animals.

I too swim with them, but only in aquariums, dolphins in the sea, whales too.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you.
With all my heart, thank you.
Now you know how I feel about animals.

Messily,
zeneagle

Molinda thank you for a beautiful story!

It kind of reminds me when my young niece visited us one summer. She was about 6 years old and we went to visit the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma WA. One of my favorite exhibits is the Beluga whales. We were down at the viewing tank and the whales were on the opposite side of tank. There was a crowd where the were swimming and so our view was not very good. I told my niece if she sung a tune in a high pitch voice maybe the whales would come over to us. She did and they did it was exciting to see them so close. When my niece stopped singing they went to the other side and when she started up again they came back. Soon people began to noticed the little girl singing the whales to her. It made my day and her's as well!

Thnx for sharing this story Molinda

makes me reallllllll happy now i requested this

forum

Love, Laughter & Gentleness, Sande

Oh wow, Molinda. That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that with us...you made my day!
Hugs, Christina

Wow!

You're right Christina, what an awesome encounter! Communication on an empathic level. And a complicated one at that! Did you notice all the factors involved? A Manta with a serious need "just happens" to come
upon a human who "just happens" to have a passion for Mantas? What are the odds? The she uses sound waves through the water which attracts the Manta's attention, who in desperation come to the one person in maybe the entire world, certainly in the Manta's world, who, because of that "Manta Passion" has the ability to overcome any fears she may have and perform first aid. And the Manta trusts her? And keeps on trusting her until the lines are cut away! Then, in an action that you can only describe as a higher function level, the manta returns and bonds with her! How cool is that?

For those of us who love animals, these kinds of encounters are nothing less than spiritual and yes, a glimpse into heaven on earth.

Thanks Molinda for sharing a GREAT scuba story!

Ernie
An Animalless Animimallover

Overwhelming. I could feel the love.
Thank you for sharing.

Molinda. Just came to this item It is truly beautiful and makes my heart sing. Thank you for this and all the great items you bring out. You are a treasure.
Namaste
Con

Hi Molinda
I have only just come across your story. It is so beautiful and I just wanted to thank you for sharing it. It made my hands tingle and my eyes water.
Claire xx

Molinda

I'm definitely a cryer and on occasion, a blubberer. Your words suspended me in bliss beyond crying and just short of a blubber.I felt I could see the ray's lovely eye and feel her grateful love. You are a wonderful writer, too.

Love
Howard

BEAUTIFUL,JUST LIKE YOU!

WOW,

how beautiful that experience was for me I can only imagine how it was for the person that sent it to you.

I too like many of you have, had such wonderful experiences with animals domestic and natural.

I just walked thru the douglas state fair and of course we always go to the petting zoo, just to see all of the different kinds of animals.

of course you can pick up on their nerviousness, pacing back and forth and bitting and turing away. The first pen we came to was a walabe from the azzie country, he sat at the back of the pen so I just dangles my arms over the pannal and started to sweep and send,

he looked up and hopped towards me and jumped up grabed my arm with his long claws and scrapped them on the way down i didnt move, there were some young boys beside me trying to tease him and sqealing at him, soon the walabe got tired of there foolishness and came back over to me and put his paws on my arm. this time being careful not to scratch me and just lavished in the QT energies. i petted him on the head and walked away to the next pen.

all the animals love to be loved and have QT sent to them. My kids started to pick up on the animals change. and said mom are you running energy? I just nodded.

a holy cross burro was in one of the next pens with a sign that said "he will bite", so I started to send before I got to his pan and I placed my left hand on his forhead and did the sweep and breathe and his eyes rolled a bit absorbing the energies, and he pushed his forhead into my hand for more. My 10 year old came up and started doing QT and he was just loving on her and she on him, they both had smiles on their faces, needless to say he never did bite.

The baby camel was just frantic pasing back and forth looking off in the distance for moma, i did some fire breaths and sent to him but he ignored me then he stopped his pacing for a bit and started looking for the energy source, he would slide past my hands and walk away then he'd come back for more as he looked for his mother and hed just kept passing past my hands, then he stepped towards me and wrapped his neck and head around my neck and calmly stepped away.

then there were the sweedish red long haired ox or cow, (beast of burden) and and antalope from india in the next pen thye were licking and chopping trying to get to me first, loving their forheads being touched with QT. those big snake like toungs of theirs came spiraling out and flipping back in lol they couldnt get enough.

the pen of goats loved the kids, and would stand up one on top of the other trying to get them to touch them.

I moved down to the Alpaca pen and he stood with his face towards the back left corned and was very leary of me so i just stood there with my hands dangling, and he'd turn his head to me then away, and then back towards me, like John Lyons says they get tired of turning their head so the body soon follows. lol.

yup his body started to follow he was starting to face me and come towards me and the noisy kids started to come towards him and he turned back, so i just did a distant on him.

Its so fun to connect and comunicate with the animals, they like to be loved. it really makes their lives seem worth while, with importance.

Love that manta ray story it made me feel grounded and connected to nature. With such a compationate awh as it was told. i could feel the mantas relief, of what the person did. Most people dont even get a hint of the beauty of what happened,(in our society) let alone the impact of taking the time to smell the roses like this person did. animals can sense those that are there to help.
WOW again

This message has been edited. Last edited by: riosyellowrose,

Hi
i loved your story about the animals in the zoo, what a lovely experience. Thanks for sharing

Love Molinda.xx

thanks molinda,

we had soooo much fun.