An Inspiring Meeting with a Whale

Inspiration defined both literally and figuratively:

Inspiration has an unusual history in that its figurative sense appears to predate its literal one. It comes from the Latin inspiratus (the past participle of inspirare, “to breathe into, inspire”) and in English has had the meaning “the drawing of air into the lungs” since the middle of the 16th century.

However, before inspiration was used to refer to breath it had a distinctly theological meaning in English, referring to a divine influence upon a person, from a divine entity; this sense dates back to the early 14th century. 

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inspiration)

Inspiration fills us with life, in both the literal and figurative sense.

With the inhalation of air into the lungs, our physical body is kept alive with breath.  With the absorption of everything in life that enthuses us, we become inspired with divine energy. Our outer world imbues us with vitality on a physical level and also on a more subtle, energetic level.

While there is a difference between the two uses of Webster's definition, there is less of a distinction in Ayurveda.

The figurative and literal sense of inspiration blend as one and the same.  Both affect us on a subtle, emotional level. Breathing draws air into the lungs and that flow of air acts as the thread between ourselves and our soul.

In both senses, the same word describes a closer connection to Self and to the world in which we live. It enables us to manifest our highest expression.  

This winter, I had a once in a lifetime experience. It was one that fused all interpretations of inspiration and dissolved any distinction in my understanding of the word. On a windy, twenty-one-degree leap year morning, February 29, 2024, I awoke to discover a forty-two foot, twenty-five-hundred-pound Fin Whale in front of my home by the marina docks on Potter Pond Channel in East Matunuck, Rhode Island. What transpired over the next hours, days, and weeks since has been truly life-altering. This whale arrived, living, breathing, and breathtakingly beautiful.  I witnessed her suffering and offered my compassion.  For eighteen hours I listened to her breathing from my home.  Just before I put my head on the pillow that night, I stepped out onto my deck and heard her inhale and exhale through the crisp night air for the last time. A few hours later, unable to free herself with a high tide, she was euthanized.  The next morning, I stepped back out on my deck to hear only the sound of silence.  Feelings of deep loss arose within me for a magnificent creature whom I only just met. 

            As I settled into the void of grief, I simultaneously experienced one of the gifts that can be found within grieving—a closeness to the truth of the soul. The rawness of grief and rapture of love unite us with the present like nothing else can.  Nothing else matters more than this moment and we are clear on what exactly is most meaningful and important for us in our life. Grief presents a clarity of seeing yourself truly as you are.  It brings you closer to your heart.  It actually expands your heart in such a way that it provides an even bigger capacity for compassion and creative growth. Eventually, in time, it will fuel your ability to reemerge from its depths, more fully evolved and more deeply in love with life.  The process of moving through grief permits us to transform loss into a newly inspired way of living.  

           Within this space of grief, was the realization that she served as a messenger and inspiration for me to step into myself in such a way that I can use my voice to advocate for nature. These seeds were planted decades ago and are now becoming renewed with a stronger sense of self and connection to the whole of life.  The event established a new way of being in the world.  It presented another threshold.  One that is welcoming me back onto the path of not just admiring nature, but also standing up for it, in all ways. 

           That morning, as I stood directly over the whale from the pier above, I witnessed her breathing with every sense available to me in my being. I didn’t simply hear her breath, but I felt it sync with my own inhale and exhale, as well as with my soul. Her breath became both life-affirming and life-giving to me. In these moments, our lives felt like one.  Any notions of human/animal hierarchy dissolved as did a distinction between physical and subtle inspiration.  We met each other, in vastly different physical forms and became unified. The experience encompassed a sense of wholeness and a true realization of inspiration as both air and enthusiasm.  The last hours of her life somehow inspired the succeeding moments of mine. In her death, she sparked a rebirth within me. Breath or inspiration is most certainly the seamless thread connecting the physical and spiritual aspects of ourselves in such a way that we can occupy both all at once and in both an individual and collective way.

Inspiration and enthusiasm unite our humanness with our soulfulness. They are the celebratory aspects of being alive. They motivate us to engage in life fully with the entirety of who we are—body, mind, and spirit—the whole and integrated self.