A Lesson on Love

May 6, 2014

I have worked professionally as an animal communicator for 18 years now. It’s hard to believe and who would have thought that I’d do anything for this long? It shows that when you discover your purpose and find something you love doing, the time just flies.

Over the years I have learned many varied and valuable lessons from animals, but I think the most important one is about love. Animals love us unconditionally. They don’t care if we finished high school, or live in a fancy house. They don’t care what color we are, what religion we follow, or what we look like. None of these things matter to them.

Oh sure, they have preferences, like eating “the good food” or going for walks EVERY day, but in the end it’s all about the love. They love us no matter what and their greatest joy is expressing that love.

Our animal friends want the best for us. It’s not uncommon in a consultation for an animal to tell their person that they need to relax and have more fun. They tune into our stress and do what they can to alleviate it. Some animals even take on our physical and emotional illnesses – they love us that much.

Does that mean that they always do everything we want? No, of course not. They have their own issues too, but at the end of the day, no matter what we do or don’t do, they still love us. I find this incredible and inspiring. If we were more like our animals, the world would be such a different place. They are quick to forgive and forget our wrongs and even quicker to bring us joy.

Another piece of this lesson is that animals always love themselves. I have never spoken to a critter that told me he was stupid, fat or ugly. They always feel their inherent worth and are happy to be who they are. They don’t judge themselves or beat themselves up for not winning that agility trial – they do the best they can and accept it.

Our animals teach us many things, but the greatest lesson of all is to love ourselves no matter what. That's what they do, and what they want for us. Be love..........

Dolphins and Whales Forever

April 21, 2014

My new book Dolphins and Whales Forever was released a few weeks ago and became a #1 Bestseller on Amazon in Hot New Releases. Yahoo!!  Well, it isn’t just my book, it’s a collaboration of twenty cetacean ambassadors, visionaries, communicators and facilitators of transformation. They all share their personal stories of dolphin and whale encounters that changed their lives forever.

Jean-Luc Bozzoli did the fabulous artwork for the cover and the following people each contributed a chapter: Nina Brown, Grandma Chandra, Celeste Eaton, Mary J. Getten, Roberta Goodman, Sierra Goodman, Anne Gordon de Barrigon, Cyndie Lepori, Megan Leupold, Joebaby Noonan, Joan Ocean, Frederique Pichard, Trish Regan & Doug Hackett, Laurie Reyon, Linda Shay, D. Takara Shelor, Teresa Wagner and Madeleine Walker. It is fascinating to read about the unique connection they each share with cetaceans and how it has become their personal doorway to transformation, higher wisdom, and the ability to facilitate physical and emotional healing within themselves and others.

As an added bonus, most of these amazing people were also presenters at the Cetacean Summit so we spent time together and created our pod on a physical level too. It’s highly likely that this will be the first in a series of books about our cousins in the sea and our relationships with them.

Order an autographed copy today at my website, www.MaryGetten.com or at Amazon http://tinyurl.com/MaryGettenBook. Let yourself be transported into the very depths of your soul as you journey along with the storytellers into the mystical, magical realm of higher consciousness that is the home and playground of the dolphins and whales.

It's Spring!

April 14, 2014

Bougainvillea in my backyard

Spring is here on the Suncoast of Florida! We actually do have seasons in Florida, they just aren’t as pronounced as other places. I hope it’s finally sprung in your neighborhood too! It has been such a hard and nasty winter across most of the nation and even worldwide. We deserve a gorgeous spring and a calm summer. Here’s hoping……

Bob and I just finished our first year in the new house so we’ve finally experienced a whole cycle. We saw a definite change in the temps this winter and even had at least four nights in January where we got into the 30s. I had to cover a few of my plants and bring in the potted ones. We had the heat going a lot and I cut way back on my daily walks and bike rides. I just didn’t want to go when it was 50 degrees and the wind was howling. I even ordered a turtleneck and some earmuffs! I had thrown all of mine out.

Tree friend at Robinson Preserve

During winter, many plants here drop their leaves. I noticed how sparse the foliage was in Robinson Preserve and flowers were few and far between. The geckos and small lizards were only out on warm days and we never saw our two snake friends in the backyard.

Last month our mango tree was in full bloom. So was the avocado. Now we have a riot of color in our backyard with our fantastic bougainvillea. The snakes were spotted at the neighbors this week and lizards are once again running across our screen enclosure. Two rabbits have taken up residence in the shrubs and we see evidence of our armadillo, but no sightings, just little holes dug in the yard.

Wild flowers on the trail

I’ve started my walks at Robinson again and am pleased to see that things are becoming lush. The strangler figs have grown all new leaves, my gumbo limbo tree has bright little buds and the horseshoe crabs should be mating again during the full moon. Flowers are popping open along the trails and the egrets are in their breeding plumage. It won’t be long before the sea turtles will be nesting again on Anna Maria Island.

I hope that you are doing well and enjoying spring wherever you are. It’s my favorite season and I’m so happy to have things warming up here and blooming. Blessings to you for a wonderful spring!

Cetacean Summit

April 8, 2014

Wow – where has the time gone? I dropped the ball on these blogs back in February when I was in Seattle teaching a workshop and then in Hawaii presenting at the Cetacean Summit. I am going to do my best to get back on track and post something each week – at least until I go to Bimini in June for my Dolphin Swim Adventure.

The Cetacean Summit that was held in Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii, on March 1-5, 2014, was a HUGE success on many levels. It brought together 19 of the worlds top whale and dolphin visionaries, communicators and wisdom teachers. This was an opportunity for us to come together and share some of our work and insights with each other and a group of about 50 attendees who came from around the world. The international scope of this gathering was awesome. The Summit was educational, inspiring, transformative and a cetacean love fest! We really came together as a pod.

Most of the presenters 

Each presentation brought something new and deep. I was honored to share about Raising your Consciousness with Whales and Dolphins. There were channeled messages from whales and incredible stories about close personal relationships with wild dolphins. Other presentations were about creating Unity-Community and the healing power of cetaceans.

In addition to the outstanding presentations, many of us had the opportunity to swim with the wild spinner dolphins of Hawaii. They are amazing and loving beings and dozens showed up each day right outside the hotel! We also spent time with the humpback whales that were there calving during our visit. One evening Jean-Luc Bozzoli showed his newest visionary DVD and another night we had a dance party!

Spinners we met

I so enjoyed spending time with old friends that I rarely see and finally meeting some colleagues like Joan Ocean, who I had not previously met in person. We bonded as a group and I am sure that we will get together again in a similar format. The time and place just needs to be determined.

Check out the website www.cetaceansummit.com. There is still good information posted there. I hope to see you at the next one!

Polar Bear Sorrow

February 9, 2014

I had a call the other night from a woman in South Africa. She wanted me to talk to the last polar bear on the African continent.

Grieving Wang

Wang has been in the Johannesburg zoo for 30 years with mate Geebee. They both arrived in South Africa in 1985 at the age of one. On January 13^th, Geebee was found dead of a heart attack and poor Wang has been in a state of deep grief ever since. He is heartbroken and inconsolable.

I found a photo of Wang on the internet and then sat down and had a chat with him. His will to live is pretty much gone and he does not want to go on alone. I let him talk and express his grief, sadness, pain and loneliness. I just sat with him and allowed him to express himself.

Then I spent some time thanking him for the service he and his mate have provided to people for 30 years. I told him that they were the only polar bears that anyone in Africa has ever seen. I explained that his cousins in the wild were having a very difficult time due to climate change. I told him that I did not know if he would have another companion or if he even might be moved to another facility. 

Our conversation ended with me sending him as much love, gratitude and compassion as I could. My husband also did some emotional release work for Wang.

If you have a moment to send love and healing energy to this lovely being, please do. He can use our support to heal his broken heart or leave this world. The choice is up to him.

Changing Views

January 27, 2014

  

I just watched a video about a new study at Emory University where they are trying to understand canine cognition. They’ve trained a dog to be still in an MRI machine and they watch the brain while they give commands that sometimes involve food treats and at other times don’t.

With MRI, the team can visualize how specific parts of a dog’s brain respond to stimuli like food and social rewards. By evaluating brain activity, they can infer how much of a dog’s motivation is about food rewards and how much is the result of social interaction with a human. They say, “We’re finding strong evidence that it is not just about food.”

Duh! It’s hard for me to not be a little irreverent when I read this stuff. Have they ever spent any time with a dog?  Maybe it’s these kinds of studies that will finally ‘prove’ that animals are feeling, thinking, emotional beings, and should be treated as such.

It is very difficult for me to see that science still hasn’t yet embraced the field of telepathy. The quantum physicists are on board, but when will the behaviorial sciences and biologists catch up?

I had wanted to do animal research when I was young – sit in the jungle with Jane Goodall and study chimps. Then I wanted to do cetacean research to understand whales and dolphins. When I discovered telepathy I realized that this would answer so many scientific questions. What could be easier than asking the animal directly the What, Why, Where and Who of their lives?

While it seems we are still in the infancy of accepting telepathy and animal communication, I am seeing slow progress. When I took my first class in 1988, now 26 years ago, people thought I was nuts. I couldn’t mention it to everyday people without them backing quickly away. That is not the case now. Almost everyone has at least heard about animal communication or know someone who has used a communicator or they have seen something on TV.

A former student of mine has been working for the past two years on her PhD project in animal communication. She has been talking to people’s pets and recording the accuracy of their interviews and her results are quite impressive. She’s blazing a trail to legitimize this field through the scientific method.

A few months ago, I was delighted to have a student in an animal communication workshop that is a professor at a Canadian university. She teaches a class in “multiple ways of knowing”  and wants to bring telepathy and animal and nature communication into the curriculum.

So I guess that things really are changing. It’s just taking longer than I would like.

Sea Turtle Nesting

January 16, 2013

Baby rescued from a nest

From May through October, Florida beaches are home to sea turtle nests. Females come ashore during the night and lay about 100 rubbery eggs the size of ping-pong balls. They haul themselves up on the beach, dig a hole about 18 inches deep, lay their eggs and then cover them up. In about three hours they are heading back to the water. I love walking on the beach in the morning and looking for fresh turtle tracks coming from the water and then going back out again.

Here on the gulf coast the most common sea turtle is the Loggerhead. We have a very active ‘turtle patrol’ group that stakes the nests so they aren’t disturbed. In about 60 days the hatchlings make their way to the water at night and swim out to the seagrass beds where they live for several years. These little babes weigh less than an ounce and are only two inches long. Their sex is determined during incubation by the nest temperature: boys like it cool and girls like it hot.

Digging up the nest

A few days after they leave, the patrol digs up the nest and counts the eggshells. Bob and I attended an excavation this summer and were delighted to find that about ten little turtles were stuck in the nest. This gave us a rare chance to see them! They were all released a few hours later under the cover of darkness.

This past summer there were 370 nests on Anna Maria Island alone. From those nests, approximately 23,178 little hatchlings headed into the gulf. Scientists estimate that only 1 in 1,000-10,000 hatchlings live to adulthood so it’s a pretty tough life. Adult turtles can grow over 3 feet long and weigh 200–300 pounds. Sea turtles live their entire lives in the ocean and only the females come ashore to nest.

All sea turtles are endangered but I’m thrilled to see that so many are nesting in my own backyard. Perhaps next year I can join the turtle patrol. Wouldn’t that be fun?