I love when I’m led to a beautiful moment in my day. Today I was led to this video where Oprah is sharing with Larry King how she became aware of “The Secret” before she ever knew it was called “The Secret” when she landed her role for THE COLOR PURPLE. I welled up with tears as I heard her sing, “I SURRENDER ALL… I SURRENDER ALL…” And at that moment I knew I needed to share this with you.

Oprah’s story reminded me of how I manifested an internship in Hawaii working with four bottle nosed dolphins from the middle of Tulsa, OK when I was in college at the University of Tulsa studying Psychology.I began using dolphins in every psychology presentation I could. In my Cognitive Psychology class, I compared and contrasted the human brain with the primate brain with the cetacean (dolphin) brain. In my Environmental Psychology class I gave a presentation on the Ocean Environmental Preservation, featuring endangered cetaceans (dolphins and whales).

I read Ocean Realm Magazine at every sitting when at home. I would be the first to get the magazine from the mailbox. I gathered up every National Geographic Magazine I could find with stories of dolphins and whales. I listened to a CD with beautiful Orca songs mixed with music non-stop. Family and friends started giving me dolphin gifts at every turn. A dolphin ring. A dolphin medallion. A dolphin pendant. Dolphin statues or figurines. I talked about dolphins and whales all the time. It was my healthy obsession. I slid dolphin art in the front of my clear page binder. I had books filled with dolphin stories and photographs.

One day out of the clear blue, my advisor asked me to come meet with him. He shared a call from the University of Hawaii at Manoa for a very selective internship doing Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology research with a Marine Mammal program. The program involved working with four bottlenosed dolphins at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii.

I applied and put everything I had into my application. I waited for months with no acceptance. I was growing impatient.

I cried and got so upset thinking I was not being chosen for this internship, but I knew I needed to be there. I felt that deep burning desire. I wanted to be making our flights, finding the place I would live, pack up my things and move over for the semester, and yet there I was waiting… Waiting… Waiting… And nothing was happening. Why didn’t they just accept me into the program already? I was READY!!!

One day I was swimming laps in our beautiful pool. I could see the light refractions in the water and as I swam back and forth, I got into a really relaxed state. I saw a whale’s eye come closer to me and as I looked in her eye (I’m not sure how I knew she was a female whale, but she was) I could “see” how much love there was for me. For a moment I could see my future and my past and how I was so loved I could barely fathom that much love. The sensation filled me up to overflowing so intensely that I wondered if I could take any more love. That is how intense the love was. At that moment the vision vanished and I stood straight up in the pool and began sobbing. I came inside and told my mom all about it and how I knew that everything was going to be okay.

I released everything in full faith that it was coming to me. I surrendered all…

Very soon thereafter, I received the confirmation that I had been accepted into the program and that I was ONE of TWO INTERNS who had been accepted NATIONWIDE and WORLDWIDE for that particular semester.

So when you want something so bad you can feel it, see, it, sense it, taste it, smell it, and know in your heart of hearts that it is your destiny, it comes to you ONLY when you SURRENDER ALL in FULL FAITH…

Live Into It With Love & Light… :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.