80 Opportunites

We arrived to the beach at midnight wound up, eager to hear the roar of the waves and the rattle of palm leaves. Stretched out side by side on lawn chairs, my mama and I moon bathed as hundreds of hermit crabs inched along the sand beneath our feet. Since I had never seen so many crabs gathered together like this, it felt like I had stumbled upon a secret, a private pilgrimage that up until this point only the waves and the sand had been privy to. I envied them and the philosophy that “home” does not have to be confined to an address and I imagined their whisperings…Tonight I will find a nice piece of coral to crawl under. Tomorrow I’ll sleep with the waves. I had come to Mexico to learn again what it means to be present and at the same time I had hoped that in this journey I would forget.
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We had waited all week for them like anxious little girls on Christmas Eve. Will they ever come? The Turtle nest in front of our beach house had been ready since we arrived. 60 days up. The volunteers had already begun preapring the site by removing the coral that bordered their natural crib. Each day after my morning run, I would inspect the site for any signs of movement.
Nothing.
In the early evening as we watched the sunset and sipped vino, we circled the perimeter calling out to the little ones below.
“It’s safe now you can come out little babies.”
Nobody stirred.
On our last evening together, just after my cousins had said their last goodbyes and headed back to the city, I had stretched out under a palm tree when I noticed the ground shaking,revealing a tiny paw scratching its way to the surface.
“Vengan! Vengan! Rapido! They are here!,” I screamed announcing their birth like a proud mama to everyone on the beach. Suddenly dozens of turtles and their siblings erupted from the ground like a volcano pushing their way into the moonlight. 71, 72,73 the volunteers were counting them as the little ones marched into a single file line. They knew exactly where to go magnetized by the pulse of the ocean, it was as though they had been here before. The first one showed no fear as he headed deep inside the darkness of the thundering wave. He churned and somersaulted for a time before taking a final dive into the abyss. It hadn’t occurred to him to wait for the others. There was no doubt that this is where he should be, that this is the direction he should go. He seemed so sure of his destiny he didn’t need to glance back or look over his shoulder. And he need not be consumed with thoughts of predators and shark infested waters for there would be algae and seaweed to eat and fish of every color to admire.
“Have a safe journey my little friend, ” I called out.
“We were a part of something magical tonight, a special secret that nature keeps for those who need to hear its message.” My uncle tells me wrapping a blanket around my shoulders.
80 new lives cast out to sea. 80 opportunities. 80 reasons to be courageous, to dare, to risk, to create, to explore, to love, to hope.