It's All About Perspective

Back at one of my favorite spots, the Los Angeles Zoo. Perspective is something that we often don't put much thought into, but it so importantly shapes our outlook on and interpretation of life and the world around us. By altering ones perspective one alters his or her outlook and demeanor, but it can go either way. What can go up can also go down, our perspective can downshift or upgrade depending on which perspective we allow ourselves to look through. 

Standing there at the zoo I looked up and heard the waterfall before I saw it. I love waterfalls, any moving water at all really. So relaxing, so beautiful, so alive. It took me a couple of minutes to realize what I was really looking at. Standing there on top of the rock outcrop was a beautiful bird that I believe was from Africa. The colors on it were so bright and vivid, especially contrasted with the black of so many of its feathers. I also noticed that right next to me was a telescope to help better view the birds and animals there on top of the rock and in the surrounding areas. I laughed to myself. What a great metaphor. Using the tools around me that I hadn't taken the time to see, I could have seen the bird up close as soon as I arrived at the spot. I tend to get consumed though and forget about everything else. I tend to get lost in certain things. I become so enthralled by something or someone that I don't even see the rest of the world happening all around. It's moments like those that we have to stretch and get up, get moving. Look for the telescopes around you, the things that will help give you perspective. The things that will help open your eyes to the world around you and truly see. So often we get caught up in the beauty and excitement of something new or something we love and we miss the fact that there are so many other beautiful and amazing things out there. Why limit ourselves to just one when the world is vast and full of wonder?

Don't Just Keep Swimming, Go For A Swim & Enjoy Doing It

I just freaking love this video! 💦🐢💦 I love turtles so much anyway, to me they are my zodiac symbol. While I don't believe in that I do believe that certain traits are more common at certain times of year, etc. I am a Cancer and I really fit the definition perfectly, while some people are more blended. Either way, to me it's just one way man has attempted to understand the stars' effects on us and how timing in cycles affect outcomes of individual events. Normally a Cancer is a crab, but I feel a turtle is a much better representation  And it works too, it fits all the same properties of the crab that are used for its representation of its people. Turtles are beautiful creatures with intricate and strong shells that are more than just something pretty to look at, it also provides a home and hiding place for the turtle. He can withdrawal whenever he doesn't feel safe. A lot like me. I could go on and on, let's just say I've taken a big liking to turtles now. Something about it in my gut feels right so I go with it. After feeding giant sea turtles you can't get much better, but I just loved watching this little guy go for a swim. I hadn't seen this particular turtle swim like this before and it was cool being right there and getting to watch as he swam right across my view. 

It relaxes me so much to watch them when they glide so effortlessly in the water. They just use smooth, wide, strong arc waves from their front appendages to propel themselves forward. Slowly and steadily the strength of each push combines to move the turtle along quite speedily. 

He made me smile. As you start your day today remind yourself to take it easy. Take a deep breath and slow down a couple times today. Be mindful. Take 15 seconds to pause, breathe deeply and clear your head and focus only on what you are doing right now - that is what mindfulness is. Try it today, use it to help you glide along like this fella. Don't just go through your life, enjoy it. Don't forget about living the life your so busy worrying and stressing away. 

Be Courageous, Be Curious, Be Inspired

I know I've already told you I am just amazed by these otters, how they play and how they interact with each other and the world around them. They interact purposefully with the zoo visitors watching them and they interact with the other zoo animals that come into their world. Attached to their water tank is a gigantic piranha take that runs along one of the far walls from ground to ceiling. The otters love to swim along the bottom of the tank and watch not just the fish but the people through the fishtank. They watch the fish fight and eat and swim in unseen patterns back and forth. They try to tease and provoke them out of their simple routines if only for the purpose of having fun and having something to do. Don't be afraid, be yourself. You are unique and the world needs you for you and everything you are. We all have our own purpose as well as our own personal Joy. Find yours, use it and share it with the world! Find hope and inspiration in the world around you, even when you have a limited tank and surrounding. Find the piranhas around you and play with them. Get some Joy out of what you have and where you are. Is there a better alternative? Don't forget to ever be open and curious - Joy comes from anywhere and everywhere and for each of us the path to Joy is singularly different. Find your path and follow it - I promise you will love what you find down the road. 

Run, Slide, Dive, Swim & Play - An Otter Start To The Week

One of my new favorite animals to watch at the zoo is the Otter. The LA Zoo has a new Rainforest of the America's Permanent Exhibit with Otters from South America and they are huge. I have never seen otters this big before. They are magnificent to watch, especially because they are so playful and fun. They love to run and swim and jump in and out of the water for hours at a time. The good things is that they have a great exhibit with so much room that is catered to their needs. There are places people can watch from above or at eye level, and then the best - underwater views that allow visitors the opportunity to watch them twirl and dance underwater as they effortlessly move with the most agile speed. And the sound they make, like a barking cat almost is so cute to hear, especially because when they all get going and form a chorus of clicking the sound is magical. There are times you can literally watch from above as they run from one end of the exhibit to the other and back again over and over seeming to never tire. There were a couple of really young ones there too. For the most part they are very social creatures, as far as interacting with the human crowds around them. Amongst themselves they couldn't get any more social. We as a species could learn a lot from them. They live together and work together, but more than that cooperate and play together. It is an amazing thing to watch and I could do so for hours. 

This first picture I keep as the background on my iPhone's lock screen - the picture of the otter sticking it's little head timidly over the top of the waterfall to see over the edge of the rocks. Besides being cute it reminds me when I look at it to always have caution but to not let it hold me back. Eventually I have to jump, we all do. If not at this one then at the next, but eventually action is necessary. That's why Mr. Otter comes over the edge to look out and eventually jump over the edge to gracefully side into the water in front of everyone. It challenges me to let go of things I am holding on to and try new things and live life more. I watched him circle around and around for about five minutes before he finally decided to go in. He would circle around and dart a glance out before sliding back into his little pool of water up above and circling around again. Once he got down below he went to play and had a great time for the next little bit running, sliding, diving, swimming and having a joyful time; all of this after hesitating and learning how to get over the fear of something new and unexpected - in his case all these crazy new strangers looking at his every movement and yelling and screaming while banging on the glass and waving hands in the air. He had a blast and loved every moment after he got over his initial fear. Don't let things hold you back and keep you from all the running, sliding, diving, swimming and playing out there ready for just you. You and just you. You have your own personal Joy out there waiting for you, waiting for only you to come find it and tap into the limitless strength it has in order to make your life better and more joyful. No one else has access to that joy, only you do. So if you don't use it then it truly does go to waste in the Universe. Think about that the next time you hesitate about something, take a moment to say yes to something new today. Give it a shot. Try something you've never tried before and open yourself up to the Joy that's waiting there for you. Remember that otter and swim free, let go and have the time of your life - that's what it's for after all. 

The Joy of Being an Elephant (Even When Not In The Wild) 🐘🌾🍃🌿☀️🎶

Never forget to dance along to the beat of life, I mean look at this elephant. This magnificent creature is massive and It's been around so much longer than any of us and is built to destroy things many times our size. It's natural tusks are so valuable that they have put the elephant on the endangered species list and threatens to keep them there until they simply cease to exist. I don't know how the LA Zoo aquires and conserves animals but I know that these people and handlers can be trusted. These elephants needed a home and found one here, where they are well taken care of and don't have to worry about poachers or drought or predators. This Establishment has the backing of many very influential and honorable people. I could go on and on, but the point is that while the Zoo is not the ideal spot for the elephants to live it is the best and safest place for them to be right now and at least while they are here we can make sure that they are taken care of in the best manner possible so as to make them happy and make their life most like how it would be if they were home in the wild.

Being here allows them to safely and peacefully live their lives and to be happy as well. Human beings aren't the only living creatures capable of happiness and Joy. All living creatures are capable of love and joy to some form or extent. Look at this beautiful elephant, those amazingly rare and deadly tusks. Yet such a gentle demeanor from an animal not threatened by poachers or rifles. Granted they are still wild animals, but by being rescued we domesticate them to an extant (the least amount as possible) in order to help them acclimate and ultimately survive. They don't get all the same things they would if they were outside the zoo, but they get the extra benefits over the risks. I don't know if this elephant was bred, captured or rescued or whether or not he has ever even seen the wild, but I do know one thing - he doesn't care right now. He is enjoying being alive. Human beings must have invented stress and worry for ourselves because it serves no point except to sabotage our own lives; animals don't seem to be stressing about what their lives will be like in ten years. They live in the here and now because they have to. While we can't necessarily live life without thinking of the future at all we have quite a bit we can learn. This guy floored me, mesmerized me. I couldn't look away and the whole time I was grinning, smiling and laughing along with everyone else there. I was already complaining about odd things throughout the day and look at this elephant here who had more to complain about than me and he was saying screw it, let's make the best of it. It almost made me feel like a fool. 

At this certain point there were about twenty or so people gathered looking out over a meter-high barrier standing between the elephant enclosure and the outside zoo. The elephant seemed to know he had an audience because, as you can see in the video, he looks over many times smiling and keeps going as if to play. In the warm springtime sun he seems to dance to his own tune and rhythm, in sync with whatever is running through his head. He keeps cool by backing into the water from the waterfall and plays around once more by climbing the hill to dance around some more and wave with a smile to his adoring bystanders. It was one of those moments in the zoo when you completely forget about time and everything else and get lost in the sheer Joy of witnessing anther animal not only find its Joy but share it with others. Joy truly is all around us. We have to constantly remind ourselves to be like Mr. Elephant and simply blow off the sand and dirt of troubles and dance away the stiffness and ache of life. Live in the present moment and enjoy what is going on right now, even when your situation is less than ideal work with what you have and make the best of it. You will never get another today again; a tomorrow maybe, but we don't know about that either. Since we can't be sure lets make sure to focus on finding those things of Joy in our life and truly enjoying them once we find them. Once we do that sharing becomes an easy next step as it pretty much happens on its own as you become a becon outward of your own Joy. So play in the dirt and the water, get messy and have fun - sing and dance like there's no tomorrow, because today is all we are guaranteed. 

Why Do We Keep Animals In Cages? Better Yet, Why Do We Pay To Go To The Zoo To Stand, Stare & Watch?

Happy Monday & welcome to another day, here we go again. Another start to another week, like a never ending cycle. When we look at it like that life is meaningless and bleak; we have to move past that and beyond the monotony that we have gotten so used to seeing. This past weekend my husband and I went to the Los Angeles Zoo, twice actually. We got our Membership to the Zoo passes and they have already paid themselves off; I have to say I am pretty excited. I have always loved the Zoo, ever since I was a little kid. I could watch the animals for hours upon hours. While there is that part of me that hates seeing any living creature in captivity I know that the zoo has a lot of conservation efforts and really does a lot to try to protect these animals. You can see the effort and care throughout the park and it truly makes it a great experience.

It got me wondering though, while we were walking among the cages, why do we do this? Why do we put these animals on display and keep them in these cages that are so small and confined compared to their outside world? Why do we rope off and enclose those foreign and alien to us? Why do we take the things we can't understand or we can't control and put them in a box to study? Why? Because we want to understand. It is the same reason we have become obsessed with Reality TV and Vlogging online, as a culture we have become consumed with understanding. In and of itself this isn't a bad thing, as our means of communication have continued to progress it has propelled us into an unprecedented era of human evolution. Some things have never changed though - like the fact that we want so badly to understand our own place in the world that we look at the environment around us in order to place ourselves in a context we can comprehend. We like going to the zoo because we like being able to see and study those things that we can't directly understand. We see ourselves in those wild eyes and we seek some kind of understanding there. Some kind of hope, not just for them but for us as well. 

Cages are designed by humans, we are the ones who build the contraptions of our own captivity and who trap those unwilling creatures we wish to watch and study and learn from. In the course of protecting the world around us and saving the things we ourselves place in danger we must remember that cages are nothing more than unnatural boundaries between us that serve only to keep us apart and keep from bringing us together. Of course at the zoo we need them to help keep the animals safe and separated, to keep them out of harms way and to keep them healthy. These cages, these limits, these boundaries all serve to protect these beautiful animals and conserve their way of life for generations to see and witness. Yet, look into the eyes of these animals as you watch them and see if you can truly tell what that look is trying to tell you. We are all living species on this planet and we are all a part of something much bigger than ourselves. We share this world with each other, human and animals alike. We go to the zoo to be transported around the globe to the most remote locations and get a glimpse into the most wild and exotic locations. These animals provide us a glimpse into the wild humanity that we have evolved from. We pay to go watch them so that we can get a better understanding of who we are, where we have come from and where we have yet to go. Our friends in the animal kingdom show us the warnings nature throws our way, the subtle roadblocks or speed bumps along the way to slow us down or cause us to take heed. We go to the zoo so that we can immerse ourself in a world we can only see in books and on television. In a world that we know to be true, but that seems to elude us at almost every point. 

Those gates and fences though are dangerous, they are there for a reason in the zoo - so we can safely watch the animals in their enclosures and learn about the different creatures of this planet. We have to learn though how to see through these fences as the nothing that they are. They are no more than man made boundaries and we must learn to make our own fences in life that protect without isolating. There are many times in life that we build fences around ourselves, whether from the outside world or from someone in particular living in it. What we have to learn is that these fences only tend to isolate us and cut us off from the rest of the world. So often, so many times, when we think we are acting in self-defense we are actually acting in fear. Next time you visit the zoo watch the animals living there, like this beautifu orangutan mother and her baby who wouldn't stop looking right at me. In that moment, than instant, that connection - I knew why. I knew what that caged animal was saying to me - "Look, we're not so different you and me. Look, we're just the same."