why Oceans2heal nearly did not even start to exist

Dear reader
 
Welcome to my website, I am happy you found me :)
 
When I had the idea to create something bigger than me, something that might actually change something in this world, I felt so great, so powerful and motivated!
On 6th October 2018 I was not able to sleep. Something in me wanted to create oceans2heal that night – I brainstormed for a while, suddenly had the idea for the name and double checked it with my niece. She lives in New Zealand and English is her native language because New Zealand and Switzerland are on the opposite sides of our beautiful planet she was awake and she was willing to help :) thank you Leyla!
As soon as I chose the name oceans2heal, the logo began to picture in my head.
My heart was beating for the oceans for all my live already, but since that night it has a name and a logo! It felt so amazing :)
 
But then there were these voices in my head which told me that this will never work, that this will just be another idea without the power to reach the people or change something. Alongside the “it won’t work” in my head there were already some people out there telling me (and I know that they are right) that I am not perfect, that I am not living a zero-waste life, I am not a vegetarian and that because of all of this I could not stand behind my idea.. and it felt like I should just give up and quit.
But then I reminded myself that no one can ever be perfect and for sure no one was really great at what he does when he started off and that I can start even if I’m not ready. I will learn and evolve during the process of evolving oceans2heal. And: doing something is always better than doing nothing at all. I try. And maybe I will inspire some people out there to change their way of living too. I guess if I inspire only one person, it’s already a success! :)
 
I then reminded myself of what I do right already.
·         I support SeaShepherd by donating money for over 15 years already. I cannot be out there helping, but I can donate money and that’s what I do. I think it would break me if I was out there watching human beings doing cruel things to animals. My heart is not strong enough to face cruelty, but I believe it’s big enough to reach people and make their heart bigger too. That’s why oceans2heal will never show pictures of cruelty, but write about it and show the beauty of our world. And oceans2heal will inform about great organizations and show which products can replace bad and dangerous products.
·         I support “the ocean cleanup” since they first gathered money over the crowdfunding platform because it’s such an amazing idea.
·         I support 4oceans.com because they are supporting so many great causes and clean up oceans and beaches.
·         I don’t visit any aquariums because I will not spend money on companies that keep fish in such small tanks.  Sharks, Turtles, Dolphins, etc. should be able to swim freely and should not be imprisoned. But the worst part about these aquariums, is that the animals don’t live as long as they would in nature and therefore have to be replaced by a new animal rather sooner than later. New animals have to be captured from the wild again. What the people visiting aquariums don’t realize is that many of the dolphins the watch come from Taiji, Japan. That’s where they hunt dolphins during 6 months every year! They drive their boats to the open water and as soon as they find a pod of dolphins they confuse them by making terrible noise. Confused the swim away from the sound, straight into a cove where the biggest and nicest dolphins will be selected and sold to aquariums all over the world and the rest of the pod will be slaughtered. Sometimes they release the younger ones again, but without their family they are confused and helpless and end up stranded on some beaches.The slaughtered ones will be sold so food to the people, but since many Japanese don’t like dolphin meat that much, it sometimes is even labeled as whale meat.
If you would like to know more about this, you can follow sea shepherd cove guardians on facebook or watch the documentary “the cove” (very hard to bear)
·         I am not a vegetarian, but I only buy organic meat from my own country and I don’t eat meat every day. If I eat meat I usually eat chicken. I know, this means I am killing animals too. I am aware of this and that’s why I am working on becoming more and more vegetarian. As i said, I am not perfect.
·         I love tuna, but I refuse to eat it because tuna can’t be bred in captivity and therefore will be just hunted till extinction. Once, when I told someone why i don't eat tuna, the person replied “nothing changes just because you don’t eat this”.. such a silly answer – yes, it’s just a drop in the bucket, but constant dripping wears away the stone. It’s not the one giant action that changes everything for good, it’s the constant small gestures that matter.
·         I collect garbage when I see it lying around somewhere and when sailing I grab every piece of garbage in the water I can reach, and i choose my clothes from companies that take care of our nature.
·         I talk about the problems our oceans have, about how people cut off shark fins and throw the sharks back into the water where they drown because without fins they are unable to move and therefore breathe -  just because someone wants to eat shark fin soup. And I avoid any restaurant that sells shark fin soup.
If you would like to know more about this, please watch Sharkwater. This documentary took away my fear of sharks and showed me how important sharks are for our world. They are the most important element to keep up the eco-balance of the oceans.
·         I take care on what cosmetics I use, avoid products containing micro plastic and sunscreens that destroy coral reefs and of course I always try to avoid cosmetics doing animal testing.
 
I guess i could carry on for a while, but i also guess that’s enough “I …”  for now. Now: what’s in it for you?

You can expect videos and pictures from my own journeys (I am also a photographer (www.vvphotography.ch)) i will gather information for you, like product reviews, ideas on what can be changed and sometimes i'll post links to external pages with great articles. There will be real suggestions, there will be no fake on this page, neither in my pictures nor in my texts or videos. And you can donate money to oceans2heal and either support various organizations through me, or support our own project to sail the oceans in a couple of years from now. Please give me a note when donating if you would like to support our own oceans2heal project.
 
While writing this I switched several times forth and back between “I am not good enough, I don’t have enough knowledge, what in the www is true and what is not??” and “BUT I WANT TO HELP!”. The “I want to help” luckily always wins (staying positive is part of my nature) and I therefore let you know that everything I share with you on this page is what I believe is true. It’s my actual opinion based on my experience and my actual knowledge. If you know something is not true please send me your opinion to contact@oceans2heal.com. I welcome constructive criticism very much since it’s one of the best ways to learn new things, to open up the mind and to see new things. I am grateful for everyone putting time and energy into giving me constructive feedback.
But please understand that I will not answer to insults or hate mails since I want to put my energy into growing and helping and not in solving the hatred of people.
 
The purpose of oceans2heal is not to point out all the things we do wrong – it’s about what we can do to help to save our planet. It does not matter how big our actions are, every little thing helps and once we’ve started, our actions will become bigger anyway. And it does not matter if you help people, animals or nature. All of these need our help, but one person can’t take care of everything. That’s why it’s so great that we are so many already willing to help. If everyone puts hate and revenge aside and chooses love and respect instead, we can achieve so much.
It will take a while, it will need patience, but we must not give up. Giving up means the end. Doing nothing means the end too.
As John Lennon once said: “Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.” Therefore there’s only one option: keep going, step by step, day by day. Giving up is just no option. This is true for every situation in our life.
 
Thank you for reading <3  and thank you for being you. Thank you for caring
 
Violet
 
By the way, I do apologize for any mistakes, my native language is German, therefore there will be spelling and other mistakes, sorry ;)