She drew the story of her dance of love and left it for us to witness the beauty–of life and birth. She is a wild artist, with a flair for the dramatic, this siren of the deep, this lovely mother.
In the dark of night, with starlight lighting her way, she heaved herself out of the water and crawled ashore. Dragging her body, filled with eggs–with hope, did she pull her way up the beach.
Digging with her back flippers, she made a nest where 131 moist, fat eggs were slowly dropped, then covered.
Off she slid, down the steep, sand bank and crawled along the water’s edge creating a lovely portrait of her journey, left behind for those lucky enough to witness it and see.
This southern sweetheart is welcomed home to the beach where she was born over twenty years ago. Join with me in celebrating our first sea turtle nest of the year in Alabama.
Sunday at dawn finds me on the beach these days. It is my day to cover a stretch of shoreline looking for sea turtle tracks and nests. I go a little early to play with the light, the wind and water. It sets the intention of the week for me–service, gratitude and beauty.
I awakened at 4am with a dream of turtle tracks. So real was it my senses were activated…touch and smell especially. After checking email I dressed in my green turtle shirt, shorts and flip flops and headed to the beach. But even with such a vivid dream there were only human tracks, no turtle tracks, in any of our team’s assigned area.
Surprised was I that no tracks or nests were found, but so happy to be present to witness the beauty and commune with the sea. And then share breakfast with three other women who share the same love of the ocean and sea turtles as me.
We’re still waiting mama turtles and we’ll be here whenever you bless our sand once more with your babes. Until then, happy turtle dancing with your turtle ‘mans.’
Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. We might be most familiar with this organization through the movie Contact starring Jody Foster. Looking for intelligent life on other planets, in other galaxies is SETI’s mission.
I heard an NPR interview with Jill Tarter on the program Science Friday/Talk of the Nation. She is the chair of SETI. In the interview she made a statement that made me guffaw. “Technology is our proxy for intelligence. Technological civilizations survive for a very long time. It may take 100,000 years for a signal to reach Earth but if they were there to send the signal, they’re probably still there.”
Since I was driving I had to carefully control my reaction but I did laugh, hysterically perhaps. While I understand the basis of her statement I question the logic of it.
Oiled beach from 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
In the short time humans have been on this planet we have managed to destroy life forms, land masses, pollute waterways, over-populate and exploit resources to the point where future life is questionable. Was she suggesting that other life forms might be more intelligent and survived with their technology without destroying their planet? If that’s the case, I want to meet them…as long as they are friendly and helpful. Mean aliens need to stay away.
Maybe her ET’s could teach us how to care for our planet and use our technologies wisely instead of the highly destructive ways we use them now….drilling for oil miles below the surface of the ocean, injecting toxic chemicals into the Earth to eek out natural gas and pollute the water-table, strip mining, mountain-top removal mining….and on and on.
Does technology equal intelligence? I haven’t seen evidence of that on this planet.
(Please note: I did not take the photos of the ET’s).
Last summer I spent nights sitting under a blanket of black sky twinkling with white stars. The sound of waves lapping on the sand and humid air hugging my skin brought me into the present where I experienced the wonder of nature. Sitting quietly awaiting the birth of sea turtle hatchlings, I was gently guided to recognize and harmonize with the magnificent natural world.
A few miles east, tourists wandered through souvenir shops looking for trinkets with which to remember their vacation. Perhaps few ever understood the biggest treasures could be found sitting on a quiet beach absorbing the peace and magic of the place. While the Gulf of Mexico and beaches affected them, maybe many left never seeing the beauty….the deep beauty…or feeling their connection to it, as part of it.
laughing gull
I wonder if that’s why humans can so easily ignore the plight of our planet. Collectively we see through eyes blinded with superficiality: Nice ocean, nice beach…oh, look a sea gull…wow there’s another tee shirt shop….let’s buy a $20 tee shirt to remember….nice flower….nice tree…too bad they are clearing them…gotta go to work…can’t save everything….oh that’s sad about the dolphins, let’s get a tee shirt with a dolphin on it….could I have extra plastic bags for shells….just put your cigarette butts in the sand they’ll dissolve….recycling takes too much effort….
There are probably many reasons humans ignore their connection to nature. I think we’ve specialized our roles in society and have forgotten that we are entirely connected and dependent on nature for our life.
Disconnect One: A farm half way across the planet grows food for us. A fisherman catches our dinner. We show up at the grocery store and connect to our food sources by perusing the air conditioned aisles. Most of us have no idea what it takes to grow enough food to sustain our own lives.
Disconnect Two: Collectively we have bought into the mindset that more is better. We consume at alarming rates. We feed the corporate mindset that more profit is vital and so resources dwindle at any cost.
Disconnect Three: We are too busy. Our collective pace is out of sync with the timing of the seasons and movement of the Earth. This is strongly connected to the ‘more is better’ mindset. We sacrifice ourselves to feed the ‘profit at any cost’ motto.
This reminds me of TheMatrix movies where humans are only used for the energy they produce for machines. They are put into a dream-world of their choosing and exist in their minds in this place while their bodies are used only for what they produce. Sound familiar?
At some point individuals break out of their bondage and begin to see life as it really is in TheMatrix. It’s not easy and they struggle but the reward is awareness, consciousness…awakening.
Our fate is determined by our choices…every day choices…by what we choose to notice, to give our attention to as that is what will multiply and blossom in our lives.
The birds are singing. My garden is growing…slowly, ever so slowly. The river is flowing. I breathe in slowly…I exhale slowly. My bare feet feel the warm soil. The leaves of the trees softly rustle in the breeze. Nature embraces me as its own. This, to me, is peace. This is a small beginning in learning to see beyond….
The dark, heavy energy has shifted. I’ve been sitting on my back porch listening to the rain, listening to distant thunder over the Gulf and to wind chimes slowly moving in the slight breeze, their deep tones filling the courtyard with celestial music and serving as background sound to drops splatting and thumping on the metal roof. Frogs sing occasionally, adding their baritone to the soprano whistles and trills of birds darting to and fro.
In the distance, the sounds of children laughing and playing in the rain provide nurturance to the joy taking root within the dark recesses in me that have stored grief over bad new– environmental reports this week that seemed endless. Swinging in my hammock chair with my buddy Stanley Kubrick purring contentedly on my lap, I realized that I have ridden the wave of grief to the other side.
A spark of light ignited this shift. A favorite musician posted yesterday on his FaceBook page, “So happy to be playing music. There is no finer place on earth today than Oklahoma.” Ben Taylor’s post planted a seed of light. I nurtured it by having a session of Thai Yoga yesterday afternoon that helped stretch me out of my funk. Then the morning of rain and gentleness helped me grow the light seed and expand it like a candle igniting a thousand inner lamps.
Being present in the moment and happy to be doing something I love to do is something to celebrate. Finding joy within a storm of bad environmental news gives me a stronger foundation from which to work and helps me gain footing on the Path so I can take the next step in my work. With my inner lamps rekindled I move forward with joy, in celebration of this beautiful water planet.
Stanley Kubrick and I celebrated this delicious, rainy, soft morning by dancing on the back porch while listening to Jolly Holiday. “Ain’t it a glorious day? Right as a mornin’ in May, I feel like I could fly….When the day is gray and ordinary, <Stanley> makes the sun shine bright!”
Staying present with grief, with joy…with beauty. It’s all part of this turning point in which we find ourselves on our Earthly planet.
She drew the story of her dance of love and left it for us to witness the beauty–of life and birth. She is a wild artist, with a flair for the dramatic, this siren of the deep, this lovely mother.
Digging with her back flippers, she made a nest where 131 moist, fat eggs were slowly dropped, then covered.
This southern sweetheart is welcomed home to the beach where she was born over twenty years ago. Join with me in celebrating our first sea turtle nest of the year in Alabama.
