Dear Critters,

It has taken me over a week to write this post. After my buddy discovered yet another massacred and mutilated draughtboard shark, I honestly just really didn’t feel up to writing. My buddy Mark ‘LP’ Jones has posted a video of his disturbing find and offered his personal reflections on his excellent blog http://www.oceanandtheearth.wordpress.com to raise awareness. But though he showed me where he had buried the wretched carcass with its monstrous gaping jaw underwater, I can never bring myself to watch his video, confronted by the grotesque details of gross human entitlement.

I find myself lost for words, numbed by yet another example of ignorance and gross inhumanity. Anyone who would commit such callous acts of violence against an animal (or as my father rightly pointed out, against another human being) in my opinion has elected to disconnect entirely from their own soul.

Instead, I choose to share this short clip LP filmed of me with a beautiful male weedy sea dragon with the full length of its tail covered with gorgeous pink eggs, along with this photo that I took in 2012:

This juxtaposition of impending new life against the tragedy of most unnatural death once again compels me to evaluate my own current prognosis of terminal illness. In my situation, do I choose to obsess about premature end of life or focus on the fact that life is for living fully? As always, I choose life. For as long as I live, I hope that I will be able to share the wonders of the underwater world that will outlive us all with others who might learn to love and cherish it as I do now.

This week I will commence my next round of palliative radiation. Once I am finished, I will board a plane in the hopes of crossing swimming with manta rays off my Bucket List. I cannot wait to share that amazing underwater adventure with you.

Love and bubbles,

PT xxx

ps Tank you so much for taking the time to read this post. While you are here, please take the time to enjoy some of my other underwater adventures … and don’t forget to like Pink Tank Scuba on Facebook! 🙂 🙂 🙂