Beneath the Surface: What Swimming with Manatees Taught Me About Connection
We learned that manatees huddle near the spring’s 72-degree water in the winter, but every three days they must forage to eat the eel grass. They are farming the eel grass to keep the food supply strong for the manatees. After a cold spell, if it gets warm again, then the manatees are on the move all around the river looking for food before they settle in for the night near the springs. We happen to have timed our trip for the first warm day after a long cold spell, so the manatees are incredibly hungry.
We were warned to not touch the manatees, but to step our feet down on the floor of the river and maintain a float and freeze posture while near them. No kicking of the feet is allowed. If you need to propel yourself through the water, you can only use your hands. Then they told us some stupidly obvious stuff like don't hit, kick, or abuse the manatees in any way. They said manatees are extremely friendly, curious, and docile. They have no real predators, so they don't have a fight-or-flight instinct and are gentle giants who just move around grazing. They are mammals who need to come up for breath every 5-15 minutes.
Then we learned something incredibly fascinating. Manatees have hairs all over their bodies with extra keen sensors that can read your heart rate and know your intent. They are very aware of our emotions and energy. They touch each other through their body hair to understand their pod members.
I think about this the whole time on the boat. I wonder how it works. Is it through electromagnetic fields like a horse? Is it a sophisticated version of cardiognosis (heart knowledge/wisdom)? Is it chemical?
A Bond Beyond Words
This type of animal-to-animal and animal-to-human and human-to-human connection has gripped me ever since I understood it through horsemanship. A horse can feel your heart as you enter their electromagnetic field. Since their heart is so large, this field is quite expansive. The extra sensitive horses can feel you as much as 40 feet away. Other horses have a smaller bubble. The more bonded and familiar they are to you and the nuanced emotions you carry, they begin to expand their perception of you.
Solomon can truly read my heart. He knows when I want to go faster or slower. He knows when I am agitated, not focused, or in fear. He knows when I have clear intent. He knows what I want to do as much as 20-30 seconds into the future. He can feel my appreciation and admiration for him. I can feel when he is beaming with pride and self-satisfaction and accomplishment. I can feel his heart when it is supple and contrite towards me. I can tell what he is thinking around other horses, or as we pass by something familiar or unfamiliar. I can see pictures in my mind that show me what he is thinking. All of this incredible connection through a heartbeat.
Dogs, cats, goats, cows, donkeys, and even chickens transmit and receive these types of messages all in varying degrees of sensitivity. Humans who are sensitive to others have been given the gift to feel other people and, in a general sense, understand their thoughts and intentions. As I have felt very bonded to certain people and connected to the spirit of God, I have felt these impressions even stronger and from a great distance. Unlike animals, humans can imprint on another human’s heart to the point where you can feel them even if you are in another part of the world.
Two people have been on my heart this week. One lives in India, and the other lives in the Netherlands. My friend in India contacted me and said, “I have been thinking about you the last few days!” It’s truly amazing! John and I have this deep connection too, and I can feel when he isn't quite right or has concerns or is ready and open for new things. He can sense my mood and emotions as well.
If we are honest, we are just a bunch of manatees floating about our daily lives touching hairs with one another. Our hairs can grow over time, and we can become even more sensitive to it. Sometimes I practice my “cardiognossis” with strangers in waiting rooms, airport lines, or grocery stores. I have found that the more clear my emotions and the more pure my intent, the stronger my cardiognosis becomes. This clarity also helps me to be close to God, which creates even more clarity, and the cycle continues.
Swimming into the Unknown
I keep overhearing the captain and the manatee guide talking about how few manatees there are.
“I think most have them have gone to the eel grass fields where we are restricted,” I hear the captain say.
The guide answers, “Yea, I hope we can find some today.”
I feel a deep devastation inside as I think about the possibility that we may not see manatees or swim with them. This event was the sole purpose of our trip. Every so often, one of them exclaims, “There! Is that one? No, just a stick.” We all keep our eyes on the water, looking for their noses to rise up for breath. Our guide and captain move us around to all the familiar spots where manatees are known to eat.
I start praying that God will bring us a manatee we can swim with. My heart swells with hope for a manatee sighting. We turn into a little cove area where we see lots of boats, snorkels and noodles sticking out of the water, and tourists in their float and freeze position.
“All right guys, who wants to swim with a manatee? We just need to find one that doesn’t have swimmers yet.”
Hope turns to excitement as I get my mask ready and put my phone in a waterproof case. I am the first to stand and move to the ladder they are lowering into the water. They tell us to stay as close to the guide as possible if we want to see manatees.
I am not shy about it and stick super close to the guide. I’m the only one! Everyone else is politely 8-10 feet away. She keeps calling them, saying, “Come close; stay close to me if you want to see the manatee.” Then she points right below us and says, “There is one right here.”
Floating on the Edge
I put my face in the water and breathe calmly through my snorkel. I can hear my Darth Vader breath in the water and hope it won't scare off the manatee. Then I see, through the sediment below, just feet from me, a huge manatee. It’s easily seven feet long and twice or three times my width. I so badly want to touch it, but I keep my hands to myself and float and freeze. My heart is racing with excitement and awe. I hear my own heartbeat through the water and think, “This manatee will probably think I'm some kind of fangirl dork!”
I look back for John, who is 20 feet away. I motion him to come close. I can see his eyebrows furrow with annoyance through his mask. I propel myself with my hands to stay with the giant manatee and close to the guide. Floating and freezing with intermittent hand propelling proves to be a bit unpredictable, and I find myself right over the manatee in very shallow water.
I hear the guide telling me, “Freeze and float! Freeze and float!” What does she think I’m doing? That is EXACTLY what got me into this mess. I was freezing and floating and therefore unable to control my whereabouts!
I can tell the guide is not happy with me floating directly above the manatee, and it seems I am one second away from being banned from the waters permanently. Would I go to jail if I touched it?! This is not my fault. I did everything she told me to do. I’m freezing and floating right over the manatee.
Deep Connection in Shallow Water
I suck in my stomach as best I can to not dare touch the manatee. I feel the heat radiating off his skin, which is only inches from mine. He happily grazes below me and seems to not care one ounce that I’m hovering above in a freeze float.
This moment seems to last forever and is incredibly surreal. As I try to calm myself down, I realize this manatee probably knows every thought I have. I summon my thoughts back to myself and concentrate on how much I love and admire the manatees. How I have wanted to swim with one for years and how I love elephants, their closest living relative. Flipper was my favorite TV show growing up.
Then it happens. As we float into shallow waters, I feel the hair of the manatee touch my belly and thighs. I am technically touching the manatee. It is completely forbidden. As it happens, I imagine all of my thoughts and emotions transferring to him like Avatar.
I might be making it up, but I feel like this experience is very common and normal for the manatee. He is not astounded by me, or taken aback that he can feel my thoughts. It was like he said, “Oh there's another one of those slimy pink things above me, breathing heavy and trying to float and freeze. I need some more grass.” This is his everyday life in the winter. As I write this, there probably is another slimy pink human near him while he eats his grass.
But to me, I touched something profound. A collective emotional intelligence that is a part of something divinely designed. I touched an organic technology that can feel thoughts and intent and even read my will. Its knowledge is framed by that manatee’s experience with other humans and other manatees and the living force around it.
The Language of Emotion
As I think about the hair on the manatee as the instrument for connection, I think about brushstrokes: the living record of intent. Do they touch the canvas with vigor and quickness or a deliberate slowness? Are they achieved by a swipe up or a swipe down? Was that brushstroke laid down with excitement or peace? Or maybe the artist was thinking of someone she loves and all her hopes and dreams for him.
Like the history recorded in our heartbeat, so does the brushstroke record our energy of the moment. Our brushstrokes live on the canvas and speak, creating a connection to the collective emotional intelligence that divinely inspires and informs our own revelation. The viewer of art feels the thoughts and emotions of the artist through the brushstroke.
Even if we are like the manatee eating eel grass, seeing our 100th tourist of the day, and we are delivering our 100th brushstroke on our canvas, it is not so banal for the art collector. When they feel those brushstrokes touch their belly for the first time, it arrests their heart, and some even gasp. Art collectors float and freeze their way through the art pieces on the wall until their belly is touched by a brushstroke and their heart is struck by deep emotion. Then, they know they are seen.
The giant, gentle foraging beast floats casually away from me, and I feel so grateful for the beautiful encounter. I float in my spot and watch the swimmers with their snorkels move past me and follow the guide. I feel like I have occupied the space near the manatee long enough and need to give others a chance. I return to the boat at peace and thankful.
I think about the days ahead and remember my goal of completing two paintings this week. I think about those brushstrokes I have yet to produce. I am painting two horses and two sea turtles and painting live at the gallery on Friday. This experience of connection forever lives in my heart. It will carry through into my brushstrokes that stack on the canvases this week.
With all my heart, I pray my brushstrokes speak profoundly to the viewers and collectors. I pray they hold the overcoming of my pain, the forgiveness of those who have betrayed me, and the love I have for all people in their beautiful journeys through their lives.
Have you experienced a profound moment of connection with a human, animal, or work of art?
In the 1980’s I lived aboard a sailboat which was moored most of the time in the Fort Myers Beach back bay. The porpoises would come and swim by the boat and also past the dock that we were moored at for a while. I wanted so badly to swim with them and often dove in. my friends on the dock would say he’s right behind you! But he would never swim in front of me – strange I thought. Often when I was on my boat, a porpoise would come swoop up to the boat flip around and splash water on me and I am certain he did it intentionally! Often they would swim on their side, close to the surface and look right up in my eyes and go by very slowly. I feel like they were my friends and I love them.
One day, when I was working on the boat, a pelican came and landed on the boat, he walked over very close to me and planted himself. Later when I left the boat and walked out on the dock he followed me. The next day he was there waiting for me and stayed with me the whole day. as I would be working and moving further away from him he would get up and walk over close to me again. I never touched him. I didn’t really try that hard and it seemed like he was not interested in having me touch. Many onlookers Would come by and make comments about my pet pelican. He stuck around by me for about a week and then I didn’t see him anymore, but it was a wonderful experience to think he had such an attraction for me. He had terrible bathroom habits! Right in front of God and everybody- good thing I had a water hose handy by.
My love for animals in general and birds even I had a pet snake one time surely does show up in my paintings and it is exactly what I want to be painting about- the love and connection between humans and other creatures that are living with us on this planet. I thank God for each one of them.
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Elli Milan Art replied:
Wow! Amazing! How very special! I agree about the connection to animals.
Elli – I did this many years ago! Apparently before so many rules were put into place. We were in the Crystal River. There was a monument on the bottom at the mouth of a cave. We were in scuba gear (as I was certified years before this) but we had to switch and only snorkle when they were present. They were playful and wanted contact. A belly rub! They feel like a dolphin sort of. They were developing the rules as they were dealing with boat prop injuries, thus the cage was placed around them. They are friendly and came to the boats. As a child, I got to pet the dolphins at Sea World. We won’t discuss years. lolol Memories for certain!
Great Story!
Debra
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Elli Milan Art replied:
Aw! That’s so great. I saw pics of the cave. I wanted to go but didn’t. Next time!
I lost my son the night before Easter 2011 in an auto accident just south of town. That summer, its dusk and I was planting some tubular flowers in a pot. Something came flying in amongst the flowers and scared me. I sat quiet, wondering what the heck it was. It came back. It was the cutest little hummingbird moth. I just sat in amazement watching it go from one flower to another. It left my spirits in a HIGH. It was just the coolest thing. I never knew there was such an moth. I took it as a sign from my son.
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Elli Milan Art replied:
That is so beautiful and it’s kits. Thank you for sharing. I hope it comforts someone in this community. 💕
Last year when I was stranded on the bank of a small river, one of the tributaries of the mighty Amazon River, waiting for another boat motor to arrive, a butterfly landed on my hand. I was actually drawing the bank of the river with a spiral of yellow green butterflies dancing around. As I admired them, an orange and black winged butterfly joined me for a long while. I felt like he knew I loved and appreciated their beauty. He walked around on my hand gently moving his wings up and down to show me his unique markings. I was stunned and had to stop drawing for a long time. There was an amazing connection between us! I even walked around and showed my companions our incredible moment. He just didn’t want to leave me. I observed his little tongue feeling the surface of my skin and wondered if he could taste the salty sweat on my body.
He was a gift from God at an aggravating and uncomfortable moment in the intense Amazon sun waiting for our motor man to return with a different motor so we could finish our trip to the remote village of Brillo Nuevo for a dedication of the 2nd edition of the Bora Langauge New Testament.
I’ll never forgot my little winged friend! Our connection was truly enriching!
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Elli Milan Art replied:
Wow! Sounds like a prophetic encounter and God poetically showing you how the New Testament would bring many transformations!
What a beautiful, surreal experience! And don’t feel bad; my friend swam with the manatees in Crystal River and the same thing happened to her. It’s hard to freeze and float. You can’t help if a manatee swims under you. Clearly, the gentle giant wasn’t afraid and knew you were a good person who wouldn’t hurt it.
I think most animals have a sense about people. I went to Chase Animal Sanctuary in Florida to interact with lemurs. The guide told us one of the lemurs just had a baby. They babies cling to their mother’s chest. You’re not allowed to touch the babies. She said, if you were really lucky, the mother might stand up and show you her baby.
There was a crowd of about 25 + people. Some standing. Some sitting. I was squatting. The lemurs came out and ran around. The mother lemur entered and looked around the crowd who were calling to her. I was silent, just smiling and admiring her. She walked through the crowd, approached me, took my hands and parted them, stood up and showed me her beautiful baby. I cried and told her how beautiful he was. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and is imprinted on my soul.
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Elli Milan Art replied:
Oh my gosh!! This is such a beautiful story!! She knew your heart! Admiration is really what these animals respond to bc it expresses a humility on our part and respect which translates into safety. I think.
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