The olympian orcas arc smoothly in and out of the water, thrilling all in the nearby zodiac, bobbing up and down on the gentle swell, close enough to glimpse the graceful black and white bodies revealing, then concealing themselves beneath the water surface. Out of human sight, they feed on some of the ocean’s smaller creatures. The squawking gulls above noisily vie for their share of the spoils.
One cannot help but stand in awe of the natural order that when unimpeded by human interference and greed, seamlessly cycles and evolves. From the tiniest organism to the most majestic animals that populate ocean, air and land, life needs to be taken so that life can be maintained in the ‘eat or be eaten’ order of the natural world.
What does the human witness feel as an observer? Where is the compassion for the sacrificed individual member of the hunted species who make continuance of the life of the hunter possible? Who can feel dread for the hapless seal sunning itself on a floating log as the orcas approach, for the buck being separated from the herd by the hungry pride of lionesses, or the tiny rabbit as the eagle swoops? Without the hunt, predators die. With the hunt, the prey dies. Life and death- those two most mysterious of portals to the world unseen, inextricably connected, one to the other.
As consciousness evolves within the human species, we intuit that perhaps compassion is largely a human trait and one with which we are specifically endowed to bring this loving energy into the Earth’s field. It is a right and a responsibility. As we learn to love unconditionally, do we enlivened the arena in which we find ourselves, fulfilling our piece of the puzzle?