Compassionate Dolphins

              Musandam, Oman,                                               February 15, 2014

Compassionate Dolphins

Her calf was dead.

She nosed the baby to the air, but it would not breathe.

She carried it to the bottom, tried to lodge it under a shelf,

But the body kept rising to the surface.

Her pod surrounded her, grieved with her,

And dove with her in funereal formation

Over and over and over. 

We in the boats were not of her pod, or species

But the drivers observed the rite, and would not race that day.

We watched, transfixed, and held the dolphin family in the Light

As they rose to the air

and dove to the blue depths together in an elegiac procession

Over and over and over.

~Sharon S. Shepard

Compassion is the heart’s response to sorrow.
We share in the beauty of life and in the ocean of tears.
The sorrow of life is part of each of our hearts and part of what
connects us with one another. It brings with it tenderness, mercy,
and an all-embracing kindness that can touch every being.

~Jack Kornfield