Family

Spring continues to make its presence known here in Quebec. At the Montreal Botanical Gardens today I watched a mother fox and her cubs playing in the grass. Here, in the heart of a big city, live these beautiful wild creatures that few of us ever get to see. As I watched the cubs frolicking about under their mother’s watchful eye, a little girl with her father standing next to me said: “They’re just like me and my friends, they like to play.” I think all of us watching those foxes knew we were witnessing something precious.



Watching such intimate family moments in the animal kingdom provides an opportune moment to cultivate empathy and compassion in children towards non-human beings. But while TV Shows and videos about animal families abound, there is nothing quite like actually observing real life family moments in nature. For this, spring provides ample opportunities if we can just get kids outside into parks, onto trails and simply hanging out in the backyard!

In Florida I witnessed some bottlenose dolphins, including one or two young calves, playing in the water near Marco Island. Dolphins are very family-oriented, social mammals that travel together in groups called pods. They will often collaborate to hunt and herd shoals of fish; they play with each other, and when females give birth other females called “aunts” provide assistance. Recently a research project discovered that dolphins even recognize each other’s signature whistles long after they’d last been in touch.

 “Dolphin Teach Us To Play” is a song that celebrates the joy of life, something dolphins definitely seem to exude!



The Little Earth Charter Principle No 3 is The Family. The Principle of Family means doing everything that you can to make sure everyone in the human family is well treated. You can extend this principle to the -human family as well – check out Rosie's Heart (see sidebar) – a fun game that provides one way we can help to protect dolphins. Nurturing empathy in children helps them to not only be kinder to each other but also to all living things.