Dive Into Your Imagination

Gratitude and Service are my two words for 2010 as my heart overflows with gratitude and I want to live a life of Service.  At the strike of 12 on New Years Eve, I found myself completely sober and fully alive in Ashland, Oregon as I had just completed the Neale Donald Walsch Holiday Retreat.  The four days we spent exploring the meaning of our lives and who we are completely reset me for the entry into 2010.  Please contact me if you want to know more as I would love to share this experience.  During 2009 there was a lot of unrest happening all around us and I struggled to stay on path with both passion and purpose.  Have you ever felt like you lost your meaning in life and needed to reconnect with your inner desire and purpose?  I found myself questioning the direction I was heading, choices I was making and felt as if I needed to reset my GPS.  What became very clear to me during the workshop and the first week of what will be the BEST year of my life is that I have the ability to create my life.  Yes, you read correctly.  Every moment of everyday I get to create my life exactly the way I choose.  I have written about this before, but in 2010, I am going to live the experience of creating my life.  When we realize that our life is our CHOICE we awaken to a life full of freedom.

Happy Holidays.

For the past couple weeks we have been hard at work closing the 2009 calendar year and trying to give the gift of the Ocean to as many people as possible.  Here you will find a video we made about Dive Into Your Imagination so you too can share the gift with others.  I hope you will allow us to share with you the joy we have in creating these programs for children, as I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my life and all my friends and family this holiday season.  Words have always been a very important part of my life.  I did not even own my own camera until I was 21 years old.  But from a very young age I knew how important the words we speak to one another can be and how important it is to surround yourself with quotes and messages you believe in.  I share with you a quote by Mark Twain that I live by,  "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did.  So throw off the bowlines.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover."  And I ask you, what dream lies dormant within you, waiting to be awakened?  Have you discovered and embraced the wisdom inside of you waiting to be explored?  Sometimes all we need is one person to believe in us until we are able to embrace our destiny.  Let me be your inspiration.  Hear my voice, "I believe in you."

Do you have a dream living within your heart yearning to be fulfilled? Is there something you have always wanted to do or accomplish that is still burning inside? Let me be your inspiration this holiday season. Ten years ago I had the faith in myself to change directions with my life and follow my passion. Courageously I walked into my boss’s office, quit my job, sold my car and purchased my underwater camera systems with a dream to become an underwater photographer and filmmaker. Mark Twain’s words have stuck with me for the past decade, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did. So throw off the bow lines. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!” During the past ten years there have been many highs and lows in life, but I faced them all with enthusiasm and a positive attitude carrying the faith that I made the right decision. Two years ago we released the Dive Into Your Imagination series of DVDs for children and I hope you will help me to fulfill my holiday wish for 2010, help me get the Dive Into Your Imagination DVD series into every school across our nation and into every home with children. For every book, DVD or print purchased on my website between now and January 1, 2010 I will give you the first DVD, What Makes A Fish, A Fish so you can give it to a local school or a family with a child in need. I am committed to helping you give the gift of the Ocean today!

Can you remember what you were doing one year ago?  Take a moment to reflect on the past 365 days and think of where you were and what you imagined this year was going to be like.  One year ago I asked my friends and family to give thanks to the Ocean when they sat down to their holiday meal, for without a healthy Ocean, life on our planet would not exist as we know it.  This year, I want to encourage you to give thanks to the Ocean again, yet I want to encourage you to consider how much waste you are creating, especially single-use plastic waste.  Just think of the meal you will prepare, everything from what the turkey is wrapped in to the leftovers you will put in your fridge will be made from plastic.  Now, think of ways you can reduce the amount you are consuming.  The first step in changing any behavior begins with bringing awareness to a problem.  During the past year, my life changed forever when I met one of the founders of Project Kaisei, Doug Woodring, and was hired to document the SEAPLEX expedition with Scripps Institution to the North Pacific Gyre.  Please watch Doug discuss the trip we took together during August, this was filmed as we were leaving the North Pacific Gyre.  Last month Project Kaisei was awarded a Google Earth Hero award.  The three founders of the organization have such vision, that I hope their names and Project Kaisei, which means Planet Ocean, will become a household name.

Thirteen years ago in 1996 I read the book, A Sea Change, by Dr. Sylvia Earle and I can remember daydreaming about the images she painted with her words of the sea from her childhood and young adult life. As a fellow woman who had a love affair with the sea, I yearned to hear more of her stories of her in the deep sea wearing a suit that took her to the bottom of the ocean. This year she was one of three recipients of the most prestigious awards given by TED along with one wish to change the world. Can you help Dr. Sylvia Earle as her wish is to Protect Our Ocean, the heart beat of our planet. You can only imagine how excited I was to meet Sylvia at the DEMA awards party honoring her colleagues, Michael Lang and Bill High. I was also introduced to the magic of Google Ocean and will soon be contributing to the site! Last week was full of festivities, dancing and a whole lot of fun with people who make a living from their passion, which involves breathing underwater. Yet what is it going to take for us to realize the health of our Ocean is in our hands and we would not exist without a healthy ocean?