I posted this on my blog and I just wanted to share it in memory of Steve.

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Earlier this evening I was able to watch Animal Planet’s live coverage of the Steve Irwin memorial at his Australia Zoo. It was 8:00 am there, which made it 8:00 pm where I was. Since I’d been a fan of his show and his work since I was a young child, I had to tune in to pay my respects. It truly was a great service, and I’m sure millions across the world saw it as well.
From the great Australian music to the wonderful and humorous stories about Steve, I believe it was a great way to let his family, friends, and fans say their last farewell to a great man, a great spirit. As expected, the service was quite a sad thing to see overall, from audience members sobbing, different friends and family members making speeches with tears in their eyes, and even glimpses of Terri, Steve’s wife, holding back gallons of tears behind sunglasses. I must admit that I was choked up more than a few times, and I didn’t even know him except through the television (unfortunately).
I am not an emotional person because I tend to have problems expressing my emotions. I admit that. So, when something like this chokes me up as it did, I know that person had a great impact on me. There’s no doubt that Steve had a great impact on the entire world, not only with humans, but with animals as well. For humans, he taught us many new things about conservation, most notably that alligators, crocodiles, and other “creepy” creatures are not something to be feared, but something to be cherished. Steve was the most compassionate person I’ve ever seen and probably ever will see. As his father Bob said during his speech, “we should not be sad for Steve, but for the animals which he cared so much for, for they have truly lost the best friend they will ever have.”
Seeing the memorial service taught me something even more valuable though, something I’ve never realized or thought about. As I watched the service, I saw literally thousands of people crying and mourning: his wife, his father, his friends, his co-workers/employees, his producer and Animal Planet personnel, even people in the audience who’d never met him. People came from miles around to see the memorial and shed tears with everyone else that had never set foot in Australia Zoo before. And of course, viewers at home like me. But the one person that did not cry, that smiled in fact, and also the one person who was possibly expected to cry, was Steve’s little daughter, Bindi.
It amazes me of all the adults and children crying for the loss of Steve, the one person not joining in was his own daughter. Seeing her stand so strong amongst all the sobbing and all the memories truly amazed me. It taught me that the spirit within a person could be much greater than what anyone thinks. It also taught me that the spirit of a child is the greatest spirit a human has, and that we seem to lose this great gift as we become adults. Seeing that little girl stand so strong, smiling as she so happily delivered her speech was truly an example of the greatest human ability and compassion.
It also shows that the spirit of Steve was passed down to little Bindi, and that we have another “Crocodile Hunter” on the way. She truly is and will be as strong, possibly stronger, than her great father was, and definitely as compassionate. After seeing the program, I am truly in awe of what I have seen. Surely we all have this kind of spirit and compassion within us, but I think we are afraid to show it. That’s why we need leaders like Steve and Bindi in this world. God bless Steve’s family and friends, and surely we will not let a wonderful person like Steve be forgotten.

Yes, we all have this kind of spirit and compassion within us, but for some it's so hard to reach within ourselves and find it, and for others it seems unreachable altogether. That is one thing every one of us here senses, I believe, and that is why we feel so connected to Steve and so thoroughly torn apart that we have lost from among our midst a person who not only easily found his own spirit and compassion but radiated it outward for all of us to experience. This is one thing that makes the loss so great and so hard to endure.

And yet, if Steve was able to bring out even a spark of this which is within all of us so we can tangibly feel it within ourselves, he has performed a miracle. And it's no small one, at that!

I don't think Steve realized how much he actually did accomplish within the human soul. God knows it, though!

Bless this very rich (spiritually) and wonderful man!