The Whale & A Lesson In Gratitude...

Today, RJ Keisha had a very interesting story to tell on today's Break Free on 107.1 Rainbow FM. This was a story of a humpback whale that got entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines way back in December 2005.

I am reproducing that story here:

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 Farralone Islands (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 later checked out Google for this incident and came across a news report on this incident in the San Francisco Chronicle - it was indeed a true incident, which happened on December 11, 2005 near the Farallon Islands, in San Francisco.

What a lesson this whale taught us! If animals, like this whale, know what gratitude is, then why not humans?