By Joe Murphy
People gaze at me with a puzzled expression when I explain that a nesting loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) helped build our family. It is the truth.
On a darkened, windswept beach along the coast of Georgia, that sea turtle nested as we struggled to build our family. The magic, the miracle she shared with us that evening, still resonates through our family today.
When my wife and I adopted our children, it was wild and natural shared experiences that bonded us as a family in those fragile early days.
Starting a new family, with kids who have experienced trauma, you realize you have no stories as a family yet. You must build them as you experience them and retell them as often as you can.
Nature offered a safe place for us to build a family. We could learn about new places and each other at the same time. We could find the beauty and wonder of nature as we discovered the beauty and wonder in each other. The deep bonds of connection and the natural world saved us.
A trip to Jekyll Island, Georgia, and a nighttime turtle walk with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) was a first step. It proved to be a pivotal moment in the evolution of our family.
Our kids begged us to go for a nighttime turtle walk on the beach. Their enthusiasm was contagious and we obliged them. We gathered for a program at GSTC. The excitement grew from there. The young guides who would lead the walk described what we might see and captured the magic of what the evening could bring.
As we walked along the open and wild beach, all the sights, sounds and smells of a beach at night greeted us. A high tide brought the breaking waves closer. In the gathering cool of the evening, into a brisk wind, we walked. And walked. But nary a complaint was heard.
Suddenly, the guide’s radio crackled to life! “Head down the beach to the south end of the island. There is a nesting female near the overlook for the soccer fields. She is nesting right now!”
Our kids were literally leaping with joy. They hustled us along as fast as we could go. Soon we were there.
Before us unfolded a miracle of life that had occurred in elemental cycles as far back in the natural history of the Earth as we could fathom. Back into deep time, into geologic times before humanity, known only to the Earth itself. We were watching evolution in motion.
We stood awestruck and transfixed as the female loggerhead sea turtle laid her eggs. Our guides whispered and kept us at a safe and respectful distance. They allowed the children to slowly approach the turtle in small groups. A hush fell over them as they watched the magic of the coast and of the turtle.
We lost track of time as everything condensed into the power of that moment. Soon, the winds increased and the flashes of lighting mixed with the rumbles of thunder grew closer. The first cold drops of rain began to fall. It was time to go.
As we drove back to the hotel, our children recounted, over and over and almost breathlessly, what they had witnessed. It was though the recounting of it would extend the magic. The gift of the turtle.
That night changed us. It is the deep truth. We had a beautiful, powerful, positive shared experience that we could pass around like a sacred object. It was like a beautiful shell or rock that we carried with us. Soon we added more of those sacred objects and memories to create a mosaic of love and memory.
That turtle, that beach, that nest and that trip became part of our journey to wholeness.
We owe that turtle a deep and immense debt of gratitude. Now many years later we still tell that story.
We are planning a trip soon to take my granddaughters to that very same spot, that beach bathed in celestial light, and hope that it is magic again. We are returning as the nesting sea turtle did. Like the turtle, we will use our version of natal homing and our collective memory to revisit a place of great importance. The cycle continues.
Joe Murphy is a native and lifelong Floridian who lives in Brooksville, along the Nature Coast. You can follow Joe on Facebook at https://bit.ly/joemurphyfacebook. GSTC is one of the south’s premier sea turtle education and rehabilitation centers. Its turtle walks are designed to be exciting and educational, but above all else safe for the nesting turtle. To learn more, visit https://www.jekyllisland.com/activities/georgia-sea-turtle-center. Banner photo: A leatherback sea turtle hatchling (jimmyweee, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
