I’m a Mom!!
I adopted a dolphin. His name is Wilbur and he’s a sweetie!
A few days ago, we received a box of goodies from our cousins in San Antonio. The Final Four had finished a few weeks prior and the championship game was held in San Antonio. My hubby Paul is a huge college basketball fan, and our cousins sent him some mementos of the event: two T-shirts and a coffee mug. But they also tucked a surprise in the box for me. It was a Fahlo card with a bracelet and a story about Wilbur the dolphin. .
These Fahlo folks are amazing. Every bracelet that is purchased tracks an animal of your choice from the list of endangered species that they are protecting in their animal conservation program. You get an information card about the animal and an app that allows you to track the animal as it moves in its habitat. Dolphins have a special significance for me, my husband and the cousins. When I moved here from Canada I had never been to a Sea World before, so they took me to the facility in San Antonio.
I had remanent bad memories of the zoos and circus tents of my childhood, and I was nervous because I did not want to see any animals locked up or in small confinement or being made to do circus tricks. But what I witnessed at Seaworld was nothing short of breathtaking and heartwarming. Perhaps the most thrilling thing for me was the freedom and joy expressed by the trainers and the dolphins. At that point in my life, I was going through some dark and challenging events, and seeing the dolphins frolic was the first time I had smiled and truly laughed in a long, long time
So how is this living creatively?
I believe that living with an awareness of all things around us is living creatively. Awareness of others opens our mind and hearts to all the ways we are connected to our planet, to our own specific environments, and to the people not only in our immediate lives but to the people on the planet with like minds. There are people all over the world involved in Fahlo but this is not the only wildlife conservation group. Once you start clicking around you see the world is full of folks reaching out, donating time, funds, and their manual labor in the efforts of bringing aid, comfort, and relief to the voiceless.
- We live creatively when we reach out past our own boundaries and see new horizons.
- We live creatively when we understand that we do not operate in a vacuum.
- We live creatively when we feel and react to the plight of a species far removed from our own longitude and latitude.
- We live creatively when we know that what we do now makes a difference later and act on that knowledge
A sixteen-dollar bracelet is not going to save the rainforests or the melting polar caps or the drying rivers, a bracelet will not stop the poaching and the reckless slaughter for trophy, it will not recreate lost habitat, but perhaps gifting a bracelet or wearing one yourself will spark conversation and awareness for others that may not think about our endangered wildlife.
Some years ago, my niece told me that discarded plastic drinking straws that end up in the ocean are a great menace to sea turtles contributing to their destruction. Honestly? I had never thought about it before, by since she told me that, I always refuse a straw when I order a drink, even water, when I dine out.
Maybe someone asking you about your bracelet will get them thinking too.
A few things about Fahlo’s bracelet program.
- They also have stuffed toys called “Plushies” that track your animal!
- Each product tracks a real animal on a 3D map.
- 10% of their profits goes to wildlife conservation agencies. They began in 2018 and have since donated over $3 million to protect the planet’s most at-risk animals and their habitats.
If you want more information on Fahlo and their programs click below:
And if Fahlo doesn’t do it for you, search online for any one of the many wildlife conservation programs.
