Animals can Teach us

by Maya Davis López de Carrizosa

‘It had been raining all morning…’

So even though I had a list of outdoor pending assignments, I decided to stay home and organize all those pictures I found on my mother’s bedside table the day she passed away five years ago. For some unknown reason, that morning I felt strong enough to go back to all those good memories without the deep grief that had invaded me since I last saw her.  

The first picture quickly placed me on a lovely sunny day at the beach. My father was teaching me how to remove the hook from a fish he had just caught and I was staring at him in admiration but with a sight of sorrow. I could not help feeling sorry for each and every single creature he fished and I was the happiest girl when he gave me back his capture and let me put it back into the sea.

It was a day like the one reflected on the picture, when the most incredible thing in the world happened to us. I was about to release a huge fish, so big that my clumsy seven year old hands could not hold it for long. My father finally helped me and we both put it on a pond gently bathed by the waves. I waited for the next wave to sweep it in the sea but to my surprise the fish turned back at me and clearly said: “thank you little girl”. I could not believe my eyes, well, my ears!  A talking fish, that was extraordinary. But my ears were not fooling me, the astonishment on my father’s eyes confirmed that he had also heard the fish’s gratitude. 

From that day on, we kept the secret; it did not make sense sharing it since no one would have ever believed us. We did learn something though; even the smallest creature, the simplest animal, even those we do not understand because they do not seem to communicate with us, all of them must be respected and preserved.

At the tender age of seven I suddenly understood that we had plenty of things to learn from animals and to this purpose I would devote my future career.