A Shared Wisdom Guest Post
Featuring Mimi Shannon from The Shine Factor

The technological world we currently live in affords us many opportunities as it not only shrinks distances but expands possibilities. That is why you can live in the mountains in a land-locked state and at the same time have a life-changing experience with a whale. And, that’s exactly what happened to me. A whale found her way through time and space into my email and subsequently into my heart…just like that! Her story is one of radical trust and love and our story is how she helped me find the same. It is our hope that together, our journeys, might inspire your own. And now, allow me to introduce you to Valentina.

Several months ago a friend sent me a video of a humpback whale named Valentina whose life was saved by some extraordinary folks vacationing in the Sea of Cortez. The footage moved me at such a deep level that after sharing it with others I kept it on my desktop so I could remain close to Valentina and perhaps understand the mysterious alchemical reaction she had ignited within. I had no idea where she was leading me but there was no doubt that I had to follow.

It took me years to learn to pay attention to and be grateful for the many different kinds of messengers the Universe sends…no matter what they look like or where they appear! As a result my life is very different (for the better) but I started out kind of clueless and didn’t get the hang of it until I was diagnosed with lupus at age 38. SNAP! Illness is that all or nothing kind of messenger, you know, the biggest stick you can find type! So, having mastered the hard way I decided to listen up sooner and have gotten used to eagles, coyotes, owls and kingfishers and the many pithy license plates, song refrains, chance meetings and bumper stickers (among other things) that have awakened, startled, opened, reassured, uplifted, guided or comforted me.

But a whale?? Well I figured it’s not as big as an illness (phew!) but I knew she represented big business none-the-less so she had my complete attention!

Every morning, when I opened my laptop, she’d be there to greet me. Immediately I was right there in a boat next to her as she skimmed the surface between her life and mine. I could hear her ancient call taking me to new depths and often felt as if she was carrying me to the ocean’s bottom and then returning me to the surface…conscious to subconscious, ego to essence, death to life. Symbolically she was rife with meaning, way more than I could easily unravel, so I didn’t even try to figure it out. The only thing to do was to completely surrender to the ride and wisdom and healing she embodied.

Valentina arrived at a critical juncture in my life. Her story is a metaphor for some watershed choices I’d finally made but in truth were being undermined by some old tenacious fears (nets) that were as sure to drown me just like they almost did to her. Valentina’s exuberance and desire to live the life she was meant to paralleled mine but we both got caught unaware by perils beneath the surface. Radical trust had saved her life and I wondered if that’s what was needed to save mine.

When Valentina was found snared in fisherman’s nets she was close to death. She had stopped struggling but in accepting what appeared inevitable the Universe was able to answer her deeper call to live. The people who chanced upon her plight were her unlikely messengers (from a whale’s perspective). Even though she had no idea what they were (strange looking, frantic wiggly things) or what they intended… it is clear that despite her fears she chose trust instead and let go of the outcome.

When Valentina found me I was just beginning to face my own frantic wiggling things…parts of myself that refused to get on board with my desire to live free, to live out loud, to be seen, to live in joy. These vulnerable parts were terrified by my imminent “debut” resulting in an internal tug of war that was weighing me down. I felt like Valentina, bound on the one hand by fear and on the other, struggling to trust the unknown.

But Valentina was much more graceful than me; I flailed around a lot. For me, this kind of trust didn’t come easily but Valentina patiently held the space as I plumbed my own depths exploring my threshold for LIFE instead of life. She stayed close as I sat on the fence between worlds trying to screw my courage up to either stay in the box or get out of it completely. While it seems like such a simple choice, it was a double bind and fear can be as cruel and restrictive as the fisherman’s nets that almost killed Valentina.

And then one day, in a moment of clarity, I stopped struggling. I stopped trying to convince the last resistant part of me to change. Instead, I let go of the outcome and gave this part of me unconditional love and permission to be even if it meant staying in the box. Like Valentina, I opened to a level of trust greater than myself and accepted my life just as it was. I wanted to be alive and live free just as she did but I was also totally at peace with where and who I was. Somehow I knew it was all good…no matter what! And in that instant, like the nets gradually being cut away from Valentina, the internal pressure that had bound me for years began to release.

It was a feeling I’d never before experienced…similar to a mixture of graduating, flying and dancing blended together and then laced with love. What an elixir! That lonely, ambivalent part of me so terrified to be alive (but wanting it so) was feeling life force for the first time, and with it, a sense of being that was so natural, there was nothing to be afraid of. The illusion that had separated me from Me, whether in or out of the box, was now gone and I was free in a way you can only be after having been bound in any way.

When I first saw Valentina (unfettered at last) explode into her dance of joy she triggered my overpowering desire to feel that boundless exuberance and abandon. She was living my dream! She brought to life my earliest mantra, “SPLASH,” which means to live life completely from the inside out! While I have gotten used to and love the Universe’s unique sense of humor I never could have imagined that a whale would be the key to finally unlock the door that I had been living behind my entire life.

In each of the life/death circumstances that we faced we sat at similar thresholds. The doors were opened to possibilities beyond our imagination because we realized it felt better to trust than not. With that level of trust came unconditional acceptance and from there the Universe was able to supply the love that freed us to SPLASH, to live the dance of joy.

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Mimi Shannon is a soul intuitive, writer, spiritual guide, and an evolutionary and budding filmmaker. She and her daughter, Kim, are the wise women behind The SHINE Factor, which helps women of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds step into their SHINE providing safe forum, support, and tools to explore and live their greatness. Mimi is a published author and continues to write articles focused on women’s evolution.  Her first book, Self Love: The Crown Jewel – Reflections from the Journey was released in 2000. In April 2011, she and Kim published the SHINE Cards (and companion guidebook) representing 123 aspects of what it means to be a woman. Currently, she is working on a memoir entitled, SHINE For Your Life, slated for publication in 2011.

Thank you so much, Mimi, for sharing your wisdom with each of us. Your beautiful words came just when I needed them the most. I am definitely ready to let go, trust, and make a big splash – right alongside you. ♥