I saw a whale breaching off the coast of Virginia once. My mother and I were spending the week at a beach house. She saw the whale first with her eagle eyes. I didn’t see it and didn’t believe her until there it was, a huge Right Whale. It was swimming along the shore flanked by a fleet of porpoises. She was magnificent. A lost queen from an ocean kingdom. A creature from an ancient past surfacing into my consciousness. A family had just arrived and was setting up their chairs and coolers. The four kids, all young, made a bee-line down to the water and jumped into the waves. And even though the whale was still far off, I was concerned for their safety. I ran over to the mother and father to let them know this enormous whale was making her way down the shore. I was excited and slightly out of breath when I came up to them pointing out to sea. The man looked at me and offered me a drink. “You look like you could use one.” He said. He wore a white Terry cloth robe and horn-rimmed glasses and was pouring a whiskey sour from his thermos. His wife, a pretty but worn looking woman laughed and said, “I think she’s seen too many movies.” I was shocked that they didn’t believe me “But it’s coming this way and your kids are-” She cut me off. “There’s only little porpoises out there. Nothing to be scared of.” With that they both laughed. They had dismissed me so easily. Neither of them had gotten out of their chairs to look toward the ocean, toward the whale. I backed away. I ran to the beach house. When I got to the porch I burst into tears. The kids had gotten out of the water and now the whole family was digging in the sand. They dug a big hole, one that they could all get into. The whale, with her retinue of porpoises and sea birds came closer, her shiny black body threading it’s way in and out of the surf like a dancer. She rose up and arched her back then dove down again into the waves. The family was only yards away from this miraculous vision and they never looked up.

There will always be people who don’t see the miracle around them but there will always be people who do. Sometimes they don’t see it right away. They have to look hard and long but eventually it rises up before them. To me what matters most is being able to see the whale.