Author Topic: Anchor  (Read 1941 times)

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Offline Dahlia

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Anchor
« on: January 26, 2018, 12:46:34 PM »
Having read many of the posts on here I realize that I am not alone in feeling lost and numb. My heart goes out to all of you dealing with grief and loss.  I feel that in losing my sister I have lost my anchor and I am adrift. I looked up the meaning of adrift - floating without being moored or steered - which sums it up well.

Offline Karena

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Re: Anchor
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2018, 04:02:07 PM »
Thats a really good analogy -to add too it heres a story -and bear with me its going to sound odd at first -but hopefully will make sense by the end.

I visited an aquarium in cape town in december and there was one of those giant tanks with sharks and wrays swimming round and everyone was looking at the big impressive sharks - but in a bottom corner all on his own was a huge green turtle, and i went and sat on the floor next too him, so we were eye too eye -he looked so sad and seemed almost to be telling me something and  i wondered how he had got there,what was his story.So i asked.
He had been found washed up on a beach in a bad condition his shell was brocken underneath and when that happens, a turtle can only float. The people who found him were fishermen and in a part of the world where people eat turtles it was possibly the end of the line for him.But they called the aquarium who contacted a rescue service.Eventually they were able to fix his shell and tried to release him into the big tank he is in now -but he just floated -thats why they called him Bob.  If he cant swim under the water he cant feed so he lost more and more weight and they took him out and hand fed him again. A private clinic nearby heard about Bob and offered to let them use their human CT scanner for free to find out what was going on -the scan reveiled his intestines were full of plastic and balloons.
You cant just open up a turtle to operate so Bob was fed a diet which is the marine equivalent of an enema.They had to hold him upright feed with a tube then keep him upright until he had "been"every hour 24 hours for two weeks until all the plastic came out.A horrible smelly and tiring job but one which three vounteers took on.Bob gradually built up his strength and is becoming more independant from that individual attention now but its taking time -he can swim and feed, but is still sad and still isolated from his natural environment.they think that bob was already floating about on the sea because of the plastic and his shell was brocken as he was thrown onto the rocks.The plan is if he continues to recover as he is now, they will release him back into the sea this year and tag and moniter him.

 None of us wants to lose our anchor and floating about with no control over where we are washed is frightening -but it doesnt mean we can,t survive the worst storms, just as Bob had no anchor,and no control over where the tides took him or the waves threw him. But when they threw him on those rocks and broke his shell they also saved him  -
He was helped by people you wouldnt expect to help like the fishermen and the human medical centre, as well as people you would,the recue services and th volunteers. He is still recovering and he still needs to rest and some of those people are still there to catch him if he falls again.
When he does go back too the sea he still wont have an anchor, but he will be more able to survive -and live a natural life - and some of those people will still be looking out for him.

Bobs story has inspired a lot of people,those who cared for him, those who want to take action against marine plastics arine biologists and when he goes back with his tracking device he could save his species by educating and providing data to set up protected areas.But for me that ten minutes of interconnectedness between me and  a creature from a completely different world ,the sadness,the isolation and his story has made me realise that while we have both been floating around on a vast ocean out of control and we are both recovering from that journey we have collected friends along the way and those people are and will remain even when we cant see them. That a storm  has the potential too change our  lives  in a posative way too and that there is hope for the future.
 
Bobs anchor is different too ours  his is the natural instincts he can use too navigate right back to where he was born and his life by starlight.
Ours is a person or people, but in remembering them we can also look too our instincts about how they would advise us to react too something, so can also return too ours too, just in a less tangible way than we imagined.


Offline Dahlia

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Re: Anchor
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2018, 08:31:57 PM »
Thank you Karena - that is a lovely story - here's to Bob and all those who played a part in his rescue and care