I was cuddled by sting rays yesterday.  They are beautiful, soft...they feel like wet velvet.  At first we were shy of each other..I was allowed to brush their wings with a fingertip...some of them...some never allowed me to touch them, though they came close enough to see and smell me.  

I waited, listened to each ray by watching them move.  Each had it's own story to tell.  There were different kinds, and even within the kinds there were differences of size, shape, color, scarring.  As I lay my hand in the water, they chose how close to come, and if they came close..how to approach.  

One kept coming by...stroking my fingers and standing still as I stroked her wing, she kept trying to approach my flat hand face on: nose, mouth and eyes ...but I was too shy at first to let her.  Too frightened that she might bite me.  I jerked away, and she swam off the first few times she tried.  Finally, after she petted my hand several times, swimming not only under my fingers but under my palm and sitting there..I relaxed.  She swam up and faced me, and began to explore my fingers with her eyes, and "nose".  A few more passes round and she began to swim under and over my hand...tasting it perhaps with the mouth on the underside of her body..cuddling it, and swimming against it.  Finally, she began to tickle herself against my fingers...stroking them with her back then flicking her wings against them and jetting away.  

Another decided to move himself between my palm and the side of the tank, swimming tight against my palm for minutes at a time.

Another kept coming close, and flicking my fingers with her wing..unwilling to come closer than that.

They each had a personality, a history of their own.  I don't know what they were feeling, but I know we came into a relationship, whether I understand it or not.  I wish I could go talk to them more often, understand them better.  Hear them more clearly.

They are beautiful.