I received an e mail with photos of several large elephants making their way to the home of a man who had befriended them.  This person named Lawrence Anthony spent his life caring for elephants in South Africa.  His death occurred on March 7, 2012.  Two days after he died, wild elephants showed up at his home led by 2 large matriarchs.  Up to 31  of them walked over 12 miles to pay homage to his family.   It does not surprise me that they thought of their caretaker as being more than just this person,  Lawrence Anthony.   The question was asked how did they know of the death of this friend and how was word spread.   Growing up on The Farm during my most formative years I saw very old farmers and their animals in communication not only verbally but with body language.   And the animals understood their caretakers without question.  There was a symbiotic relationship between animals and their caretakers.   They were of one heart.   This is how word spreads in the wild or anywhere when the relationship is of heart and understood so.   One knows at a level that our vocabulary has no word for.   My mother thought cows were the smartest of all farm animals.   She did not think dogs were smart at all.   And yet having read a recent study on dog intelligence,  some do have the intelligence of a 2 or 3 year old toddler.   I am in awe.   Yet I know as one who talks to my dogs and listens to them,  that they tune me out when there is no need evident,  as children do.

As far as the elephants making the journey to pay homage to their friend,  it is not surprising.   We are all connected.  There is a common thread that unites all to the all.   We in the western culture are a very small segment of civilization that does not believe in some level of reincarnation.   Most of the world does with different interpretations to be sure.   Many, many years ago I read that if souls wish to participate in earth life but without human experience, they can send a fragment of spirit or soul stuffs to experience physical life at some level of existence.   Elephants, jungle life of many kinds, dolphins and whales have long been known to have language and systems of thought.   We cannot close out  whole systems of Life simply because we do not understand them.   There are those who have spent their lives in service to an assembly of creatures and have learned to understand them.   One day there will be words in our vocabulary to describe meanings not found now.   Sometimes we have to step outside our frame of reference to begin to understand Other than what we are comfortable with.   How great is our need to know is always a good beginning.   Lawrence Anthony communicated at a level that went deeper than most people’s understanding of deep.   This connection to all life , and some say just sentient life, is as far as some go.   I would go farther and say ALL THAT IS is in everything.  I go so far as to say God in a rock and beneath it also.   I have had to redefine the word God to incorporate my views and friend,  it is a long hard work.