I have a powerful yearning to go for a walk and be in the presence of my gorgeous friend Yum Yum. She is an Asian elephant, who I got to spend time with on Phuket, Thailand in 2006. When I met dear Yum Yum she was 3 years old, a baby, full of mischief, fun, play and smiles. I had the amazingly good fortune to walk with her every day for 3 hours for a month. What an absolute treat it is to walk with an elephant. Thailand is known as the land of smiles, and one gets to experience the full wonderfulness of this with an elephant by your side. As we approached each and every person on our path, we were greeted and surrounded with smiling beaming delighted people. It lifted the spirits and was fun indeed. Yum Yum loved water and one of my favourite parts of our walk was when we swam together or when she spotted the hose in my hand and barreled over for a cool down.
Parts of our path, were not designed to carry the weight of a baby elephant, they were concrete paving stones that created a walkway. As little Yum Yum and her companion Lily would walk, the paving stones would sink, mud squishing up the sides, taking the weight of these huge heavy babies. Each day as we returned to Yum Yum’s nursery she would request that I do some acupressure and Reiki on her back legs. The concrete paths, not natural to her, were causing discomfort for her. So there I would stand, letting her guide me in the points to relieve tension, increase flexibility, relax muscles, calm our spirits and revitalize our energy. She was really an extraordinary teacher and it was such a pleasure to be her student. Now, I wonder where she is and keep training myself to somehow be able to find her using telepathy. So far, nothing. If anyone has news of lovely Yum Yum, I would so appreciate knowing where she lives now and how she is doing!
