Sometimes a bit of nature helps me find balance, especially when I have sudden and unexpected emotions pop up. Things have been going well for weeks with my heart opening with feelings of it delightfully expanding in unconditional love and all the good stuff. Then for some reason, around lunch time, it was like poof! And I felt off balance.
It’s normal to have ups and downs. Being human and living life guarantees emotional tides. But when they bounce in and jump out, like my orange boy cat trying to scare me, I don’t get it.
It was like a dark cloud hanging over me. But I went on with my day–shopping at the natural food store in Pensacola, planting veggie seeds in the garden, potting plants for the courtyard fence and I still felt weird. So I decided to head south.
Our sea turtle team has a nest very close to hatching so I drove down to the beach for sunset with my camera and tripod and visited with folks and took photographs. At one point I sat on the damp sand near the water’s edge and just allowed the motion of the waves to cleanse the cloud from around me. I sang a while to the sea and by the time I left, was feeling better. Still a bit ‘off’ but lighter.
No matter what I’m going through, a healthy dose of nature seems to make everything better.
Today was the last of the 2013 Sea Turtle patrol walks for me. My Sunday morning strolls looking for mother sea turtle tracks and picking up trash are done for this nesting season. And what a beautiful day it was!
Storms were just offshore and provided a glorious display of nature’s power. There is something about a storm out over the Gulf….they key word being ‘out’ as in offshore and not over the beach.
It’s difficult to believe that another nesting season is starting to end. Of course we still have nests that will be hatching throughout September but as far as the females nesting…out team walks will be done at the end of this month.
I enjoy the Sunday morning walks…those sunrise excursions where the elements and I are one. Where wind and sea and sun and clouds affect me so deeply, so powerfully. I will miss this time alone on the shore.
It’s rather amazing how something so simple as a walk along the beach at sunrise can set the intention for the entire week. How it can open a person to the wonder of nature and the wild elements of it..birds, waves, sun, lightning, sand, salt, dolphins, sharks, rays, jellyfish, fish, seaweed, turtles, shells….what magic. What a treasure. May we honor it as such.
The scheduled shift for monitoring the loggerhead sea turtle nest came at the end of a day of coastal storms. I left my professional photography gear in my office and headed to the beach with my iPhone and rain gear. Turns out I brought the wrong gear and left the right gear at home.
Arriving at six o’clock I found the beach glorious. A nice breeze kept biting insects pushed away from the shore and the temperature was perfect. I listened with the stethoscope to the nest of busy hatchlings and heard fifteen second sand cascades with long pauses in between. Nothing soon but probably tonight, I thought.
So another team member and I walked down to the water’s edge and watched the frenzy of fish activity in the waves and I rescued tiny baitfish as they washed on shore. The gulls developed an intense dislike for me but I can’t help it. My heart will always help the underdog. And besides…I sort of know what it feels like to be a fish out of water…at least metaphorically.
As the hour progressed toward sunset the sky suddenly went berserk with color and rainbows. There was one main rainbow, a second and then the clouds began to glow pink. Armed only with my iPhone, I cursed my decision to leave my ‘big’ camera and tripod behind. The beauty of the sky was absolutely breathtaking.
But it was the rainbows that filled my heart with delight and brought such joy that I didn’t try to contain it. I opened my arms to the sky and opened my mind and heart to the beautiful energy of rainbows. Promise. Hope. Light!
As the sky faded I had a strong feeling to check the nest. When I approached the top of it was moving. It appeared as if a baby turtle was swimming in the sand, just beneath the surface. At 7pm I texted the two people who had asked to be notified…our team leader and another couple who live nearby the nest. There was no need to listen with the stethoscope as there was enough light to see the top of the nest moving.
At 8.10pm 84 to 86 (our two counter’s totals) ‘boiled’ out of the nest and went EVERYWHERE! There was no moon due to clouds and too much light on the beach and it was a wild scramble of babies making a mad dash to light. This is the reason Share the Beach was started, those many years ago. Baby sea turtles crawl toward light and with so much coastal development many were crawling into the street, under homes and becoming lost or dead.
Thanks Sherry Sander Parks for taking this photo of me playing under the rainbow!
It was an intense hatching that kept us constantly assisting them find their way to the sea. But finally, the last one crawled into the warm, salty water and we could relax a bit.
Amid more rain this morning and thunder and depressed cats sulking because they hate thunder, I feel joy and gratitude for such an opportunity to receive so many gifts from spending time under rainbows and crawling on the sand with loggerhead hatchlings.
Visit our team’s Facebook page at Laguna Key-Share the Beach.
I found myself kneeling with my back toward rain blowing sideways. Thankfully I brought along my fleece jacket and my GoreTex North Face waterproof jacket. For an August night on the Alabama Gulf Coast it was chilly and wet. Very wet.
As so often happens when we are waiting for sea turtle hatchlings to make a break for the Gulf of Mexico, they waited until it was late. And of course, the storm. For some reason they just love making their way to their new home in the sea in a driving rain.
They were making their flippered march to the water when a few decided the porch lights of a beach home was their destination and their determination was epic. We try not to handle them at all but body-blocking the lights, blocking their way with our hands, pleading…nothing worked. And even when we gently picked them up and pointed them toward the sea, they would have nothing of it.
I had crawled along beside the final turtle babe and pleaded, “Please crawl toward the Gulf.” I didn’t think it was possible but rain was blowing through my moisture-wicking, hiking pants and with my rear facing the fierce wind…let’s just say I didn’t know rain could do that.
Finally….finally we neared the water. But no….my friend decided to turn around….AGAIN! Then….BAM!!! Lightning and I said….’THAT’S IT KIDDO! GO!” and pointed toward the warm, salty wave.
In a flash the baby loggerhead was beneath the inviting water and I waved goodbye as she joined 105 of her siblings. I high-tailed it for my car.
I had hoped to be able to simply stand as a guardian and sing to them as they flapped their tiny flippers on the sand, heading south but that was not to be. I not only kneeled but crawled in the wet sand and at one point laid belly to sand to block light. Beneath a sky heavy with rain and feeling the wind whip water around me, I realized there was no place I’d rather be. Prayerfully, lovingly and with compassion I joined our team as we witnessed the Earth release Her children to the sea.
I could write about our first Alabama loggerhead nest hatching…or you could just watch the short video…. Click here to view the video. Hope you enjoy it!
Sometimes a bit of nature helps me find balance, especially when I have sudden and unexpected emotions pop up. Things have been going well for weeks with my heart opening with feelings of it delightfully expanding in unconditional love and all the good stuff. Then for some reason, around lunch time, it was like poof! And I felt off balance.
It’s normal to have ups and downs. Being human and living life guarantees emotional tides. But when they bounce in and jump out, like my orange boy cat trying to scare me, I don’t get it.
Our sea turtle team has a nest very close to hatching so I drove down to the beach for sunset with my camera and tripod and visited with folks and took photographs. At one point I sat on the damp sand near the water’s edge and just allowed the motion of the waves to cleanse the cloud from around me. I sang a while to the sea and by the time I left, was feeling better. Still a bit ‘off’ but lighter.
No matter what I’m going through, a healthy dose of nature seems to make everything better.
