I like to think I have many “spirit animals.” That is, I am like a lot of different animals that are known for a certain trait, whether it’s factual like the dolphin being playful or whether it’s fantasy like the owl being wise. But right now, I’d like to talk about one of them: the blue whale. Blue whales are the largest creatures on this Earth, mammals of the sea. They can whistle and call as loud as 188 decibels, which is louder than a jet airplane! But that’s not why they are a part of my “spirit animal zoo.” Blue whales can dive as far as 500 meters, which is 1,640 feet, which is almost as tall as the Willis Tower in Chicago, the tallest building in the Americas, standing at 1730 feet.

These animals can go far! Which is what I love. I have an insatiable desire to go far and go fast, into the school year and all the homework, across the oceans, and into my imagination, adding concepts and details and emotions. Everything that I do has a little story inside it.

I love the ocean (even though I can’t swim), and I sometimes have a weird way of conversing with people, when it seems like no one understands what I’m thinking, and then it’s just so normal in my mind that I don’t know how to explain it to people who don’t know. An old friend of mine, one that I have actually lost this year, said this when we first became friends:

"You're like a dolphin. Because when I think of you I think of smooth curved beauty, writhing and diving with happy clicks and whistles, jostling and bumping into those around it, playing tag, whipping around to explore everything around it ad play with any friend it might find, rushing around with an eager, happy smile placed righth under glassy eyes seemingly 100 yards deep the opening into creativity and imagination, depth of thought and an insatiable curiousity concerning important matters."

What a compliment!! My mind actually became very VERY calm and slow (a rare occasion) because wow, I could hardly believe that someone could see that in me! This friend of mine was quite the flatterer and a poet, let me tell you!

I love to dive deep and go deeper still.

GO DEEPER with my relationship with God

GO DEEPER with my obligations

GO DEEPER into my stories

GO DEEPER into my own contemplations

GO DEEPER with… everything.

You should dive deep too. Because in the depths of imaginary and reality there is honesty, truth, and resolve.

There God is.