SURFING the SHIFT with PLAYFULNESS & JOY!

Amanda meets Spiral!

The dolphins have increased the intensity of their interactions with us tremendously – this summer I’ve had some of the most playful and transformational swims with them in my 16 years of bringing people here.

Earlier this month I was swimming with my friends Spiral and Swoop and the gang, playing an intense game of seaweed tag. We were passing the seaweed back and forth, me with my hands and Spiral and Swoop with their mouths, pec fins, dorsal fins and tails. We were having a blast, and it seemed a god time to bring up the question I’d brought with me.

"NOW is always a great time to play!"

“I’ve been guided to bring a couple more groups out to play with you this fall. How does that feel?”

“Bring ‘em!” was the immediate reply. “We will have fun with them, and will assist them in opening further!”

“Its good to have more people holding a focus of joy”, they said. “The world is changing on every level, and those who channel joy and playfulness make a powerful contribution to the process.”

“Is it safe” I asked, having had a wave of dire predictions directed to me by family and friends.

I felt the smile of their reply… “We are all eternally safe, here to leap and play across all creation. Relax, my friend, all is well. Everything is handled by a Loving Creator grander than all of us combined. Trust your joy, for it will guide you to what is truest and best for you.”

I was shown the image of parallel realities lined up alongside each other, each a bit unique from the one next to it. They went from scary to beautiful, so beautiful that I forgot to breath…

“There are infinite realities that share this planet, each with its own degree of fear and love. The question is always the same; which will you choose in this moment?”

I felt the warmth of love flood my being, felt the release of tensions held out of loyalty to others whom I love, others who continue to see a cloudy future… a big sigh came out of me, I felt at home and relaxed, allowing myself to enjoy the beauty that calls so clearly.

“Some will experience separation, others will be filled with joy. To each his own. For us it is an easy choice, one made long ago when we decided to be born into these bodies so beautifully designed to play and love life.”

Who was I to argue? I sure was having a blast playing with them. Then Spiral dropped the seaweed in front of me, and as I kicked hard to grab it, Swoop swept in and beat me to it, squealing and blowing a stream of bubbles out his blowhole (See the photos below – you’ll see us in action when I get the video posted!).

We played for a long time, and pure exuberance filled me many times over. I felt the joy, the relief and the excitement of remembering that all is well, and its being handled by a loving creator much older and wiser than us. I felt the excitement of knowing that every drop of joy and playfulness we feel is a direct contribution to the frequency of this planet.

Joy is our nature, our divine inheritance, and there is no end to how much fun we can have. As many saints and spiritual guides have said throughout history, joy is the unmistakable sign of the presence of God.

How much joy do you want in your life?

Giving you an Ocean of Hugs,

Joe

For more information about our upcoming dolphin trips, visit DolphinWhisperer.org

For info on our September 23 – 27^th  trip , Wild Dolphins, Yoga, Meditation & Joy

And our November 9 – 13^th trip, Celebrating 11:11:11 with the Dolphins

Come play with us!

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Join our email list for upcoming trips, workshops & events –
Joe Noonan, Founder, Planetary Partners
An author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide, Joe leads retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.
A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. That harmony is inevitable and that innately we all just love each other and sometimes we forget — he is here to help us remember.

Planetary Partners advocates, educates and celebrates conscious co-creation on an individual, local and global level. We offer workshops, meditations, events and trips that awaken our divine connection with Nature.

Wild Dolphin Trips – http://DolphinWhisperer.org
Self Awareness Programs – http://PlanetaryPartners.com
Corporate Leadership Seminars – http://QuantumLeadershipProject.com
Join Joe on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe-Noo…

“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” Tielhard de Chardin

I visited the town I grew up in as a kid today… Windham, Maine, about 10 miles inland from Portland. It was very powerful and brought up a lot of feelings…

I walked the edge of the same country road I walked every day to school; past the hill we used to sled down in winter, past the fields where I picked corn as a young farm worker, past the pond where I fished…

Many of the days I walked this road as a kid, I was sad and lonely… feeling out of place, awkward, not fitting in. I didn’t fit in at home, I didn’t fit in at school, I didn’t fit in with the kids in the neighborhood… I felt so out of place, I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere, and it caused a profound sense of despair. The thought of suicide, of taking my own life to put an end to the obvious mismatch of me and this world, was a thought that shadowed many of my steps.

Back then, I thought I was the only kid who felt that way… Now I know that most of us felt that loneliness as a kid; it is the loneliness of forsaking our connection with our inner knowing, to try and belong to a world that does not honor true feelings and knowings…

As I walked along this road today, I walked beside the me that was a kid… I felt the depths of my despair, my deep aching cry to feel a sense of belonging, any sense of comfort that yes, I fit in. As I re-traced these steps, I remembered stopping to marvel at the colors of the roadside pebbles on rainy days and spring thaws, revealing flashes of hidden light from the wetness. I remembered the great blue heron  that would startle me with the flapping of his wings, breaking me from my thoughts as he took flight from the quiet of the pond. I climbed down and peered into the culvert that carried the stream under the road, a culvert I’d crawled thru as a kid.

As I walked today, I reached out to the lonely me of my youth, told myself that everything’s ok, that things get better, that I’m perfect just as I am… I shared with him words of comfort that spontaneously came forth…

It was very healing, I felt the younger me receiving my love… I flashed back and forth, in and out of time, until there were not two of me but one, both the old and the new, looking out at the world from the same two eyes, traversing the path of my youth with the same two legs.

Then I turned down my street, looked with wonder at the trees lining both sides of the road; trees that I walked beneath every day for years!

My love for these trees jumped out of me; I swooned at the love between us… and I felt the child me, and his love of these trees… and then I felt the tree’s love for me; back then and right now…

I came to the big spruce at the end of the yard, my favorite place to go and hide… a huge girth of a trunk, its thick array of strong branches, close together, easy to climb… This tree was one of my first secret places, a tall sentry between the painful reality of of denial and deceit that was the curse of my family heritage, and the strong quiet comfort that Nature so readily gave… I would climb these branches, sit on the smooth sway of their arc, and, hidden in the aura of her cloak, I would sit and cry and be strangely comforted…

I don’t remember what was said; only the sense of love and connection. This tree was my family, is my family, it nurtured and loved and accepted me in a way that my biological family couldn’t. Not because they didn’t want to but because they were too present to their own pain to recognize mine… The tree gave me belonging, camaraderie, community in ways that I didn’t understand but clearly felt. I dare say it kept me alive.

And standing before it today, I know I don’t have to be in its physical presence to feel it; its always present within me, just think of it and it is here…

I still have times of struggle, still feel the loneliness of despair, when the beauty and love and visions I feel so strongly within me seem of little or no value to the rest of my species. I still have times where the fear of being unable or of not having enough time to communicate the magic of what I see causes me to be overwhelmed in hopelessness…

And still, when I feel this overwhelm, this sense of despair, I go where I have always gone to receive comfort; I go to Nature. Here I am held, here I am joined, here I am one with all the beauty and the grace…

Even now, as I face the noisy clamor of fear and insecurities within me, I have the presence of mind to relax and soften. As I do, I feel the presence of a wiser me, a more compassionate and loving me,  comforting and reassuring me that yes, all is well and all is beautiful…

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Joe’s upcoming dolphin trips & events

JOE NOONAN is an author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide. He leads leadership retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.

A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. Following are some of his programs:

Custom Wild Dolphin Trips!

Self Awakening Seminars

Creating Conscious Corporations

Joe & Jen at The Wide Awakening

Joe’s videos on YouTube
Joe’s blog ‘Everyday Ecstasy’

Join Joe on Facebook

© Joe Noonan

Helping Dolphins become “Net Savvy” and “Fishermen-Safe”; Applying principles of ‘The 100^th Monkey’

‘Celebration of Life’ Internet Radio – Tues, Nov 2nd at 7 pm New York /Wed, Nov 3rd, 8 am Kyoto, Japan.

Click HERE to go to the internet radio show! Listen live (or to the recording) online or by phone.

The 80’s brought us “Dolphin-Safe” tuna, now its time for us to help create “Fishermen-Safe” Dolphins! Can a group of inspired people align their vision well enough to communicate a message to the dolphin collective? Applying principles from the ‘100^th Monkey’ study, in which a whole species of monkeys spontaneously began applying the actions of a few, we’re going online on the ‘inner-net’ to send the dolphins some net- and fisherman-safe strategies!

(Click here to go to the radio show webpage)

The dolphin hunters are continuing their hunt in Taiji, Japan, site of the movie ‘The Cove’. They chase the dolphins into the cove using a wall of sound, and they keep them captive there with nets. On this show we will be sending them images and strategies to “swim far, fast and deep’, as initiated by the Taiji Dolphin Action Group, as well as to overcome the puzzling world-wide cetacean reluctance to leap over simple water-level nets to regain their freedom.

(Listen to the show HERE on Tues, Nov 2nd, 7 pm EST/ Nov 3rd, 8 am Kyoto, Japan. Listen live or to the recording))

Join Celebration of Life host Joe Noonan and his guest Teresa Bolen at 7 pm EST (New York) on Nov 2^nd / 8 am Nov 3^rd (Kyoto, Japan), as we super-charge telepathic human/cetacean communication using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), guided meditation, interspecies communication and quantum physics to help dolphins become both “net-savvy” and “fishermen-safe.”

Teresa Bolen is a passionate dolphin advocate, an EFT virtuoso, and founder of Magic at Your Fingertips. She teaches in Japan and has done ceremony at the Cove in an ongoing effort to bring healing to the waters there.

Joe Noonan is an author, international speaker and a shamanic wilderness guide. Joe has been bringing groups of people to swim with the wild dolphins and whales for the past fifteen years. He leads sacred Water Ceremonies around the world. Join Joe’s newsletter for upcoming ‘Celebration of Life’ radio shows, his YouTube videos and wild dolphin retreats at Planetary Partners.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW (OR THE RECORDING)

Click here to join our newsletter

Joe’s upcoming dolphin trips & events

JOE NOONAN is an author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide. He leads leadership retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.

A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. Following are some of his programs:

Custom Wild Dolphin Trips!

Self Awakening Seminars

Creating Conscious Corporations

Joe & Jen at The Wide Awakening

Joe’s videos on YouTube
Joe’s blog ‘Everyday Ecstasy’

Join Joe on Facebook

© Joe Noonan

I spent most of October drinking in autumn up in Canada, its very similar to the New England I grew up in, except that instead of saying ‘A-yup‘, they say ‘Aye?‘  The beauty of sumac trees have caught me… their spectrum of colors keeps grabbing my eye…  They radiate such a vibrant red, they pull me from my walks, have me crossing fields and streets and streams, all so I can get right up close and gaze deeply into their colors…

Vibrant red sumac leaves

One day I was walking the narrow edge between a field of young wheat and a maple forest. The maples were turning mostly yellow and orange, I was looking for the trademark red, when I spotted a clump of sumac ahead… it was bright and bold, like the fiery red crest of a cardinal, and I found myself walking excitedly towards it, like a kid at Halloween towards a house surrounded by trick-or-treaters.

I gazed in awe at its many colors; infinite shades of red, orange and yellow. There was one leaf that the afternoon sun shone thru so brilliantly that it looked like gold… I savored that light, felt some part of me drinking it in as if it was pure prana, liquid chi…

Golden sumac leaf in autumn light

I spent half an hour with that one leaf, there at the edge of forest and field… I returned to that one spot, day after day, and literally drank in its glory…

Beauty, illuminated with the light of an afternoon sun… feeding my spirit with light, colors and vibration in a way I cannot understand, nor need to…. I am happy enough to know that it is enriching me; body and soul…

That one branch opened me, now I find myself seeking out sumac wherever I go… I fancy myself a bit of a connoseur, (even if I don’t know how to spell it)… Connoseur sounds too aloof… I am a devotee, yes, a humble fan of this radiant tree spirit, ever ready to stop everything and gaze, with devotion, into her vortex of color and light… to be transported into dimensions so vast and vibrant, I lose myself in her beauty, only to ‘come to my senses’ moments or minutes later, noticing the color has changed yet again from the restless passage of the sun…

And so in my love of her magic, she reveals more; more variations and more beauty…. I find that some of the leaves are threaded with lines of passage; the worm-like trails of bugs who have, in their mythical journey into butterflies (at least in my imagination), have eaten their way across the undulating slopes of a sumac leaf, leaving tracks of their passage that reveal yet another kind of beauty…

Tracks within the leaf

I find myself following these tracks as a race car fan follows the Indy 500, though every one of these trails is unique, telling their own story of the life of a leaf-eater turned butterfly…

One day, along a set of abandoned railroad tracks, I found a sumac with spots! I came closer, looked deeper… the spots look like African war paint, the leaves look like warrior’s shields… and another whole new kind of leaves, spotted sumac leaves, entered my awareness…

These spotted leaves transport me into a tribal ring, they look like the colors of a queen’s robe…

Sumac Warrior Shields

I looked up what others say sumac’s flower essence does for the human spirit; most concur it is a form of physical and spiritual empowerment, along with a way to feel more involved and connected with life. For me, the loving energy of sumac is one of grounding into spiritual energies, joy and vitality.

Thank you for joining me in this journey, it is grounding (and joyful!) for me to share it as intimately and profoundly as I experience it… It’s my heartfelt guidance that the more we connect with Nature’s beauty, the more graceful our collective awakening will be, for us and for all other forms of life in our world.

Here’s to our beautiful awakening!

Love,

Joe

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Joe’s upcoming dolphin trips & events

JOE NOONAN is an author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide. He leads leadership retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.

A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. Following are some of his programs:

Custom Wild Dolphin Trips!

Self Awakening Seminars

Creating Conscious Corporations

Joe & Jen at The Wide Awakening

Joe’s videos on YouTube
Joe’s blog ‘Everyday Ecstasy’

Join Joe on Facebook

© Joe Noonan

After a month away, I flew back to Florida today.

I left the vibrant cool colors of autumn and my sweetie pie back in Toronto at 4 am… I’m about to go on the road for a few weeks; Boston, Santa Fe, San Diego then Texas, and in anticipation, my body and spirit have been CRAVING an ocean immersion fix!

I arrive in long pants, sox, sneakers, shirt and sweater. The sweater comes off in the terminal, the shoes and sox come off at the curb while waiting for my ‘brother from another mother’, Jeff, to pick me up. Soon as I’m back in my humble studio, the shirt comes off, the A/C goes on and the jeans are ditched for shorts. Ahhhhhhh…

Two hours later, I’m peddling my bike to the ocean…

Its only a mile, the lone hill between me and the shore is the bridge over the intercoastal waterway. This is the first body of water I cross, then I weave thru 4 lanes on A1A, then a left turn down a quiet side street…

One block, two blocks, then thru the palm trees, I see her; shimmering turquoise blue and my heart leaps…

I pull up to the park, lock my bike against the tall slender trunk of a palm tree that I love (she’s fed me coconuts), grab my fins off the back of my bike and head for the water just steps away…

I walk across the beach, warm sand between my happy toes as my eyes scan the horizon, drinking in the vast liquid expanse, feeling my own spirit expanding out to match her…

Close in, there’s two people wading in waist deep water… Beyond them, a yellow kayaker, beyond that, a red kayak with a dive flag… He’s at the outside edge of the first reef, next to a favorite spot of mine… (I hope he leaves some lobster for me!), further out, another dive flag (he’s on the second reef), and then two more boats past that. I smile, drinking it all in as I come closer to the water’s edge, our reunion steps away…

Suddenly, just past the two people, a silver and blue Bonita tuna, about 2 feet in length, leaps out of the water, making an arch like a rainbow, colors flashing in the afternoon sun… WOW!

He hits the water and it explodes! About 8 silver, yellow and blue jacks launch themselves in every direction in response. What vitality! What abundance! Had I looked a moment earlier or later I’d have never seen it… how abundant, how blessed…

I come to the edge, toes in the salty sea, and say a prayer of thanksgiving… My love for the ocean has become reverence, entering her is an act of grace… slowly I wade in, inviting her completely inside me, appreciation of her pouring forth effortlessly… I swim out to the buoy and back, freediving and rolling on the sandy bottom, reveling in the 82 degree water. Wahoo!

I see the trail of a couple of sand dollars; I dive down, turning them over in my hand, setting them gently back down… Its good to be back, I love this place…

Slowly I swim my way to shallower water, the early evening sun angling in yellow… A flash of movement beside me, I flinch, the shadow flinches in response… Its a school of mullet, about fifty of them. They flee, my startled response too much for their edgy defenses…

Caught by the grace of their pod fluidity, I follow… Not too fast, (it’ll scare them further), just enough to slowly close the gap between us.

I send them love, waves of love, from me to them, from me and the ocean, from life to life… They slow, circle around, the biggest fish in the school swims over close, looking me in the eye… I swim alongside the school, they move closer…

Suddenly we are together, an odd coupling of sentient beings, united in mutual appreciation. My eyes are on them, admiring the beauty of their movements, every single one of their 50+ eyes are on me… I am a hunter, they are prey, but I’m not hunting now, and we mutually agree to leave that story behind us and bask in the flow of mutual love and respect.

The three biggest mullets keep swimming closer, I cannot help but think about how tasty they are! I smile, they know the difference when I’m without spear and appetite! We look deeply into each other’s eyes, recognizing that we are different only in outer form…

We swim together, as above, so below… the waves choreograph our shallow water dance, picking us up and splashing us down in unison…

I’m getting cold and the sun is setting, reluctantly I swim for shore. The shallower I get, the warmer the water gets… What’s the hurry, I ask myself, the increased warmth relaxing my shivering muscles. I tarry, floating in 2 feet of water, watching the play of sun and waves on the undulating carpet of rippling sand beneath me…

The sandy ridges move and shake with each incoming wave, the sculptor’s hand never idle… each undulation creates another flash of symmetry human hands only dream of…

Something brushes my leg and I almost LEAP out of the water! Skin rippling, I turn…

Two tiny Palmetto, oval-shaped silver sided fish with coal black fins, scurry between my legs… I kick up some sand; they dart in to inspect, looking for tiny morsels of food. I watch, enchanted, their silver sides flashing in the light…

One of them brushes up against me again… My body tingles from so gentle a touch… he swims around and under my leg,  rubbing his silver side against me again and again… a flood of ripples race thru me in ecstatic reply…

Amazed and delighted, I let my legs rest on the sandy bottom as my torso rocks in the waves. Again he undulates his body against the skin of my bare legs, moving up my thigh… I pull the open cut of my shorts close, afraid he might swim right into them! The other one joins in; like two kittens rubbing up to say hi!

I sit on the bottom, putting my torso underwater. Like a pair of dancers, together they swim up to the center of my chest, at heart level, fluttering against me, one going clockwise, the other going counter… I’m in total amazement as they each do a complete circle around me, touching.. me.. all.. the.. way.. around…

Overwhelmed by a flood of love and sensation, my mind stops.

I know these are not just ‘fish’; these are loving entities, embracing me such that a burst of joy floods out of me and into the water like a bolt of lightning…

They bob and weave, rub-a-dub dubbing up against and around my legs… I can almost hear them purring, or is it me… Its so ecstatic, I’m goofy, almost dizzy… maybe its the waves, I lie to myself, rocking in awe of the magic of their touch…

If people only knew, knew the beauty and the joy and the magic, so readily available, right here, with a mask and snorkel, with some time to slow down and simply be immersed…

The idea of doing winter family retreats on this beach returns… its a lot of work, my mind retorts, I’m already doing too many different things. The kids will love it, the ocean replies… Some people will take advantage of it, spoil the whole thing, my mind fires back… You’ll be facilitating a powerful deepening, a reunion of spirit and earth, the elements whisper…

I’ve had this dream before; organizing weeklong retreats for families right here along this very water’s edge, during the winter months when the icy winds blow up north. Give those who seek a natural connection a way to dive deeper; immerse themselves in the churning January seas… It looks like fun, yet a lot of work too, find myself tensing from the thought…

I’m reminded that I need not leave the water, I can facilitate the deepening from here, by my own deepening, my own deepening vibrating thru all of the oneness, awakening, remembering the depth and intimacy of this embrace…

Write about it, they say, share the wonder we so joyfully share with you… as I am, now, thru these words, so YOU may remember the beauty of her grace… I know you know, (you’ve swum and dove and read this far with me…), I know you feel the same movement, the same remembering, the same awakening of the divine feminine, of the oceans of life, within you as well…

Wahoo!

Joe

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‘YES LOVE CAN’ Conference, Nov 20th, Ohio

‘NEW YEARS RETREAT‘ Hawaii, Dec 29 – Jan 3rd, 2011

Join Joe on Facebook

JOE NOONAN is an author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide. He leads leadership retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.

A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us.

Following are some of his programs:

Custom Wild Dolphin Trips!

Self Awakening Seminars

Creating Conscious Corporations

Joe & Jen at The Wide Awakening

Joe’s videos on YouTube
Joe’s blog ‘Everyday Ecstasy’

© Joe Noonan

Our world is changing faster and faster… and our hearts are opening just as fast. And more and more, our expanding hearts guide us to be and act in ways we might think are crazy!

I’ve followed some of what felt like crazy guidance lately… things that, when I first heard them, my mind’s reaction was ‘No way’!

The first was doing a headstand in an ancient standing stone circle, the other was jumping into a freezing lake with a half dozen drowning warning signs… (each of these will be their own blog post, for they each taught me something powerful.)

The headstand I thought about for maybe 15 minutes before I acted – (there was a small window of opportunity). The jump in the lake, I had all night to think about…

I made this video on the walk back from the lake!

Love,

Joe

(If you cannot see the video, click here)

Joe Noonan is a Nature Lover, author, speaker and guide. A former guest on FOX TV, National Geographic and Oprah, he leads trips and workshops celebrating the ecstasy of everyday life.  You can get more information about his work at Planetary Partners.

Jen and I decided to put our thumbs to work today… with amazing results!!!

It took only two rides to get from Cork to Killarney; both rides went out of their way to bring us further.

Lorrie and Emma took us the back roads – and along the way we stopped at the highest pub in Ireland! (Learned a few curse words in Gaelic too!)

Life is flowing, always flowing… we just have to stick out our thumb and catch the ride!

(If you cannot see the video, click here)

It started out as a ‘Tower of Doom’… a blight on the horizon!

Concrete and steel, visible from miles around, a monument of corporate agri-business (at least in my mind)

Then I had an epiphany, a change of heart…