It is not difficult to spot the dolphins when they leap up out of the water. Their graceful arcs come in sets, playful waves of gray, dorsal-finned backs rising up and circling down, disappearing into the sparkles of sunshine that glitter the water’s surface. I often stood at the bow of our boat, looking down into clear, sea-blue waters, smiling as the dolphins raced alongside – layers of dolphins speeding in front and beside us, the pod moving as one, even as bodies separated, crisscrossing back and forth below.

Within the water, snorkeling among those sleek, speedy, joyful creatures, there is a similar experience. “Pod mind” it is sometimes called – a united movement that is as one even when individual dolphins separate and move in different directions, sometimes veering beyond the discernable group. There is sound as well, a low-frequency vibration that moves through the water like an encompassing bubble of energy. It is not hard to lose yourself in that, to accept the invitation of expanding to a larger experience of who you thought you were. It is said this invitation comes in many ways: dreams and meditations far from water, whether or not the physical dolphins are swimming below you, in front of you, or coming straight at you – a thrilling experience that makes some people laugh so hard that salt water rushes into their snorkel, causing them to bob on the surface with a giddy, gasping expression of bliss.

And then there are the whales, the gentle, giant Humpbacks that make their way from Alaska to Hawaii and back each year. Following a well worn path, a channel of invisible connection, they connect us as well – our peoples and our lands, we who are geographically separate from the continental states, we who hold unique qualities that those on the mainland do not. The whales, too, hold certain distinctive qualities – immense wisdom, grace and a calmness that moves through the ocean in deep, expansive waves, encoded perhaps in the very sound of their sonorous calls and songs.

Some believe the ocean waters hold ancient memories of earth that have long since faded from our human minds. It is an interesting idea: that to immerse yourself in seawater is to physically absorb molecular bits of this deeper wisdom that we have moved away from, separated from ourselves. Perhaps the call of the ocean is a recollection of a larger Pod Mind, a recalling of all our innnate knowledge from the depths of the planetary Unconscious to our conscious minds, a resparkling of ourselves that allows us to remember – and thus be – a larger expression of who we really are.

In the ocean, immersed in the fluidity of such possibilities – entranced by the joyful dolphins, held in the calm, loving tones of the massive whales, enticed by a desire to move beyond our own small limitations and embrace a more expansive existence –a prophecy offered by Native elders comes to mind: “We are the ones we've been waiting for.”