I went through the process of turning 50 the other day. Honestly, it didn’t hurt a bit. Except when I whacked myself with my glow-in-the-dark poi (Balls on strings that you whirl about in patterns – theoretically in a graceful manner.) But that happened because I was practicing growing old disgracefully. And playing. Oh, and attending my own 50th Birth Anniversary Steampunk Soiree. Continue reading
Lek Chailert, founder of Elephant Nature Park – she gets to many places and helps many other beings. An awesome woman!
Produced in 2012, this is a documentary that features Lek Chailert, founder of Elephant Nature Park, and covers a wide range of the situations and issues of the Asian elephant today.
The reality is that the Asian elephant is becoming extinct. If we don’t all come to the realization that in little or big ways we can help the ones that are left, our grandchildren or their children will have to visit museums to gasp at an animal that until recently walked this earth.
What will they think of us, their recent ancestors, the ones that allowed the unethical treatment of elephants to continue, and allowed the extinction of them to occur? I, for one, don’t want to find out the answer to that question…
Chang Yim – young male elephant and all around ratbag. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Grant Hayter-Menzies is an author of several books and is about to write one about Elephant Nature Park and Lek, the founder of the park. I’m rapt about this because both the Park and Lek are well worth reading about! Here is a piece he wrote about a childhood experience that haunts him to this day. Be warned – you will probably cry. I did.
Little humans with buckets swarming at the Drive In Ele Wash. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, North Thailand.
I read this heart-rending post on the blog of a young New Zealand woman. Please read it and other posts on there, and share it around. It’s my wish that every tourist in the world refuses to attend elephant shows and riding parks and makes much more informed and ethical choices in the future. People like this young lady are making it happen.
Thank you.
One giant step for pachyderm, half a dozen steps for mankind.
C’mon now, is this not a thing of beauty?
If you want to know more about the critters above and more with a bit of humour thrown in, these videos by The Bug Chicks. I especially like the dragonfly one.
Bugs are cool! Yep, even slugs. Nature’s insect designs are mind-bogglingly clever. And even though I don’t particularly want them around my home, I admit to having a particular respect for the design of cockroaches. Nature’s tanks!
I am, however, quite grateful that bugs aren’t an awful lot bigger than they are. Can you imagine having to run and hide from the 10 foot-long fly coming towards you? Or having to carry a baseball bat to swat mosquitos off at a barbeque?
Have a wander around their site while you’re there. There’s all sorts of interesting stuff on it. Enjoy!!
Nature’s tanks. Respect!!
I had to share this with you. It was just posted by saveelephant.org (Elephant Nature Park). A tour by blind students from Korea entitled ‘Touching an Elephant’. So very poignant…
Read their post here
A blind boy feels Faa Mai. Just look at the patience on her face…
This is very cool. Some Nobel Prize-Winning scientists were given paper and crayons and asked to draw their discoveries. Then they did a photo shoot.
Not a scientist.
“A human being is a part of the whole universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
— Albert Einstein
“Our task must be to free ourselves from this by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein.
Elephants strolling by at Elephant Nature Park
Otis finally left us at the age of 16. Apparently in her last two weeks she would go and visit some people around the corner who had two huge dogs and several cats. They told us that she would walk up to the animals’ bowls and help herself to their food, then lie down in the garden, and their dogs and cats would all lie down around her. On the last day they found her in her final sleep, in the same situation.
In some of the later photos here, her physical deterioration is evident, but she was still really big on the inside… Continue reading
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