Dear Mr. President,

I have been your fervent supporter and admirer since I have heard you speaking on TV for the first time years ago. I prayed for your success and was overwhelmed with joy when you were elected. Even though I am not American and do not live in the States, or maybe just because of this, I saw the possibilities of change for the whole world become possible, a new area of understanding and also of caring for our beloved planet. Because I believed, what you had promised.

That is why my disappointment has been even greater these last months, when I read that you were according permits for offshore drilling in the last pristine wilderness in Alaska to Shell Oil. After the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico you may revise your decision. At least I do hope so.

But the real reason to write this letter is your decision to vote for suspending the whaling ban for 10 years at the International Whaling Commission next month. Up to now only three countries have dared to break this ban for purely financial profits, by declaring it as “Scientific Research”! And the world let them go on with it.

In the years before the whaling ban up to 38,000 whales have been slaughtered per year, now the toll is about “only” 1,240 a year. How many will die when the ban is lifted? Whales die in atrocious pain for being served to children at school and the rests go into dog meat. Is this human?

Dear Mr. President, you have grown up in Hawaii, you surely have seen the whales coming to the islands in winter, you may even have been lucky to encounter one while swimming; how could you stand up in front of your children and the whole world and say: Yes, we can  - even exterminate the whales!

You have taken a heavy load on your shoulders by accepting this position as not only the most powerful man in the States, but up to now, on this Planet. I still admire you and wish you the strength to stand up for your promises and for your deepest conviction. That is why you are in this position.

Dear Mr. President, I am pleading for the whales and our beautiful Blue Planet, I beg you to think again to whom you will give your voice – to Life or Death!

Respectfully and may God bless you,

Mrs. DeeDee Bader

PS: It would be a pleasure for me to send you a free download of my book ‘Malama, a spiritual adventure for the protection of the whales and dolphins’ if you are interested.

www.thereismoreinlife.com

It was the last day of my wintertime spent in Hawaii and as always before I had to leave, I decided to have a last swim with the Spinner dolphins out in the open sea.

This day the dolphins were tired from their feeding spree at night and they came into the bay without the joyful  jumping and spinning in the air. Lazily they swam deep down in large circles, sleeping as they do with one half of the brain, one eye closed, as they are conscious breathers and have to think to come up to fill their lungs with air.

Most of the people from our boat got bored by the lack of action and so, finally, I found myself all alone following the dolphins, floating silently and with just the slightest movements over them. I never get enough of watching these sleek, harmonious bodies in their perfectly coordinated moves.

But I had to leave the next day and I wanted to say good bye. So in my heart I started to talk: “My dear friends, I know you understand me. I have to say good bye, I will have to leave you and this precious island tomorrow and go far away. I want to thank you for being here and having allowed me to swim with you and see your beauty and grace, thank you from my deepest heart. I’ll come back, I don’t know when, but I’ll come back and you will recognize me again.  I will think of you when I’m back where I live, on the other side of the globe, and remember all the beautiful hours I have spent in your company. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

At this moment one of the dolphins turned over looking straight up to me and then, with a quick movement, came to the surface, swimming at arm-length one full turn around me, looking full in my eyes.

My heart soared with joy and gratitude, he had heard and understood me, he had come to say good bye. I was so full of sheer bliss my heart overflew and tears filled my eyes.

He swam down again to join his pod and I thought it was the end, but no! He was just half down when the others, the whole pod of about 30 dolphins, like one man, sorry, like one dolphin, came shooting up, exploding all around me in a firework of glittering bodies and splashing water. Some were so close to me that I felt their pressure on my body. As fast as they had come up, they disappeared.

They were gone, I was alone. And I was there, alone in the ocean, whooping and laughing and crying out my joy and gratitude.

I did not realize that the people on the boat had been looking out for me, as I was, again, the last one to return, and they had witnessed this spectacle. So when I came back on board, they greeted me with enthusiasm and wanted to know how this could happen.

Well, I had just opened my heart and let it talk.

Today I would like to talk to you about the green sea turtles living around the Islands of Hawaii. I always marvel when I have the luck to encounter one in the water or on the beach, where they come in the afternoon to sleep in the sun.

In the old times, they were a part of the food the Hawaiian people took from nature for their survival. But they never took more than they needed, only one at the time and always from a different place, so the population would not be endangered. Only when the strangers came with their ships, they started abusing nature by taking turtles as a convenient living food-reserve on their vessels to change from whale and fish.

Today the turtles are protected by Law. But they are not safe yet as people out of neglect   and mindless action put them in danger. How? You say, nobody wants to hurt the turtles so how could this happen?

Well, turtles are not only grazing the algae in the water, they are very fond of jellyfish too. So when people at the beach carelessly throw away their cigarette butts or burry them in the sand, they don’t think about any danger for the turtles. But the wind and the waves can transport the butts into the water and there only the thin paper dissolves, the rest of tobacco spreads its poisons into the water and the filter … well, the filter does not dissolve. It unfolds and opens up in the water and looks exactly like a nice little jellyfish, for a turtle at least. With one snap it’s in the turtle’s stomach and can’t be digested. The stomach fills up with this artificial stuff and the turtle does not feed any more. Finally the turtle dies from starvation. What a pity! And there are other dangers. When swimming in this incredibly beautiful world of the Pacific Ocean around the islands, we often see turtles, sleeping down there on the bottom of the sea. They can stay quite a long time there but then they have to come up to breathe. We human beings have dreams about how we would like our environment to be, we dream to ride on a dolphin, to touch a big green sea turtle or hang on to it and let us guide through the underwater-world. Deadly dreams! When a turtle, coming up to take in air, is disturbed, she goes down right away again for security, but it could be lethal for her. Having no oxygen left she might drown.

So I plead to respect the rights of all the living creatures in the oceans and on the land. Fill your hearts and your eyes with their beauty to overflowing – and keep your hands on the trigger of your cameras! For the best of all!

I had a very nice experience with a green sea turtle on Hawaii one day. Passing through the knee-deep water on a stony section of the beach I saw a small group of people watching the water and a little boy, about 5 years old, splashing around and obviously chasing something. As I came nearer, I saw that it was a medium-sized sea turtle trying to get back into the deeper water. As the adults of the group did not interfere, I talked to the little boy, explaining that the turtles are protected and that it is not allowed to harass them. The kid looked at me and let go of the turtle. But the turtle, instead of swimming away to security, swam over to where I stood and approached slowly my naked feet in the water. She stopped at an inch from my left foot, moving her head from side to side, as if considering her next step, and then almost lovingly, took one of my toes in her mouth, like a kiss. Then she turned and swam away. It was the fourth toe, the one connected to the heart chakra.

We all were flabbergasted. The man, obviously the father of the child, said in a hushed voice: “She really must love you!”

I felt so blessed; a turtle, symbol of Mother Earth, had connected to my heart.

In my last blog I told you how I came to travel to Hawaii.

After the decision to change continents I had done my homework and searched on Internet for the most exciting places and things to do and to see.

And there was one point that rapidly got to be the number one in my program: to swim with the Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins. I wanted to swim with dolphins out in the deep blue ocean and experience the possibility of communication between man and animal.

We all have heard or seen films about bottlenose dolphins working with autistic children and this subtle communication happening there had intrigued me for some time already.

I rapidly found out how to realize my dream and finally the day came. Early in the morning a small group of people had gathered at the harbor and soon we were on our way. The captain gave us all the recommendations how to behave with dolphins and then suddenly we saw the fins of a big pod of dolphins sliding through the water.

My heart felt like bursting with joy and I hardly could hold back the tears of emotion welling up. Finally my dream had come true!

When I slipped overboard and started swimming in the direction of the dolphins, I was the last and the slowest of the whole lot and the dolphins had already passed. I turned around on the spot to see where the other people had gone, when a small group of dolphins came my way.

Oh boy, what a sight! Three mothers with their babies were swimming right up to me. My heart was bumping so loud in my chest I thought the dolphins could hear it. With effortless, slow, yet powerful movements they passed close by, looking at me with curiosity.

“Oh you beauties, you swim too fast, I can’t follow you, please stay a bit with me, I love you, you are so beautiful …” Words formed in my heart while I tried to keep up with them, my arms still close to my body as we had been instructed. Over-arm strokes are felt as a threat by these sensitive beings.

And amazingly they slowed down! Did they really hear me, did they feel my love, did they know I never would do them any harm?

They slowed down, let their babies swim my side so I could see them clearly, accepting my presence.

I was overjoyed! We swam in harmony for some time, enjoying our   communication on a higher level of consciousness. I had lost all sense of time. And suddenly they were gone and I woke up like out of a dream.

I took up my head out of the water and looked around. I was alone! No boat, no people, nothing but the shore some distance away and the deep blue sea around. Wow! Where are the others? Had I gone so far?

Turning around in the crystal clear water I finally saw a white spot far away speeding up toward me. It was the boat with a very, very angry captain who had to leave the group to look for me. He promised I would never set foot on his boat again if ever I did this again. Still completely absorbed by my experience I answered that it was not my fault; the dolphins had led me astray! Well, later on we became good friends and every time I was back on the island I went out with him to see my friends, the dolphins, again.

Almost as a final lesson of this adventure I learned later on that the others of the group having hurried so much to see the dolphins, had lost sight of them very quickly. Hurry-up slowly ….

Was it a welcome-gift from the dolphin family? I really felt blessed.

At first sight I would have said that my book “Malama” now published as an e-book on www.thereismoreinlife.com has started this famous December 31 of the year 2007. But actually it has started years ago, when, in a workshop, I heard some seemingly unspectacular words that stuck in my mind.

If you are afraid of something, do it! There is a great lesson to be learned.

I started thinking about my biggest fear and found out that it was about travelling all alone. I love and always have loved discovering other countries and people, but living in a couple I never had to bother about the how.

At this moment I realized that, living on my own by then, I avoided places I did not know and always returned to the same spots. Sure, I had my excuses, too expensive, too far away, no time … and yet it was my fear holding me back.

So I decided to go on a really big voyage, the place farthest away from me … Australia!

Great decision, so I started looking on Internet for airfares, the most interesting towns and so on.

And then, something very disturbing happened. Every time I entered some place or town in Australia, a completely different part of the world popped up, always the same.

Again and again, as I entered Sydney, Queensland or the Great Barrier Reef – the website appearing on my screen was – Hawaii!

I had never dreamed of Hawaii, did not know a lot about it, just that it’s a chain of islands in the Pacific and there I was, looking in amazement at these pictures. It was as if a big finger was pointing out again and again where I had to go.

And I obeyed! I gathered the necessary informations and booked my flight, not knowing that long years and many wonderful experiences later I was going to write a book about this island, the whales, dolphins and the Aloha Spirit of the indigenous people of Hawaii.

Life took its time and gave me all the experiences I needed to follow the path shown to me.

…..to be followed