Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte vortexes, Sedona, Arizona – painting in progress sneak peek 2.
Pacific Exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium, Photo credit: © Jackie Bourne 2017.
Recently I went to the Vancouver Aquarium. Although I would be the first person to free every single animal from captivity, I strongly believe that we won’t protect what we don’t understand. I find this true on a lot of things but the ocean in particular. When you consider how many people on this planet have never been underwater let alone even IN or even NEAR an ocean, you realize how much we don’t know about what it looks like and feels like down there. It may scare some, fascinate others and many just don’t care except to eat it or use it for health benefits as well as a whole other long list of why they just don’t care or don’t want to care. Social, political and/or a plethora of other reasons why people don’t WANT to care. I get it, it’s the ocean, it’s out there not right here…it doesn’t affect us really. It’s huge and covers 90% of our planet so it’s not dying. On the surface, it looks fine, so what’s the problem?
80% of the oxygen we breathe is from our oceans. The problem is…
If our oceans die we die. It’s straight science. It’s not subjective, political or social. It’s fact. When ecosystems become unhealthy, we become unhealthy. Not that we as a whole aren’t already for other reasons. Free time has become a commodity of course for most. But and a big but, if we don’t begin to take even a LITTLE bit of time to take care of ourselves, just to pay attention to our inner voices that make us unique and beautiful and feel worthwhile, how will we ever care about or recognize what makes us tick? In this case I think it’s fair to ask and I don’t mean to be harsh or morbid, but do you want to live or do you want to die?
Not to sound like a certain past president, but…
Are you with the ocean or against the ocean?
If you care even the tiniest bit about it, you’re tapping into beauty at its best, connecting to the reasons we exist, HOW we exist and the deepest parts of ourselves. To get even simpler…you’re choosing to breathe oxygen. By choosing the alternative is consciously choosing to breathe carbon dioxide.
It might be an easy choice for me because I spent most of my childhood in Vancouver, BC on the Westcoast by, near and in the ocean and have been fortunate to spend time in and around the Caribbean Sea. I’ve seen its mind-blowing beauty, so it’s easy for me to take a side. I realize not everyone has had these opportunities. All I ask though if you are reading this…even if you’ve never even seen an ocean…how do you like breathing oxygen?
So if we understand that we need oxygen to breathe, can we please continue to try to protect our oceans? Maybe the next time you catch a friend, family member, co-worker or stranger or yourself being a bit apathetic towards our friends who dwell in the ocean, remind yourself to ask if they (or you) enjoy breathing oxygen.
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