The Sea Turtle of Birch Park

I remember first gazing upon the sea turtle of Birch Park. If I remember correctly I hadn't given the little creature much thought after said first gaze. It was encased in a prison of plastic walls with a small amount of water inside to keep it from withering and dying immediately. It appeared as if whoever locked it in the cage wanted to torture it in a sick and disgusting way. I was jogging that day to blow off steam and had been stopped by the allure of the chances of seeing such a sight. A cruel, twisted mind had to have done such a thing. Every second that went by, the turtle banged it's tiny head on the plastic enclosure, trying to find its way back to the beach it was stolen off of. I nearly walked away, but my mind became too much of an anchor, reeling me back to the turtle. I simply couldn't leave it there. I gently picked it up and carried it to my car. A woman in her thirties, adorned with a brunette ponytail, approached me as I placed the creature in my backseat. "Is that yours?" she asked out of breath. I turned around, "Oh, oh no, I found him in that patch of trees over there." She sighed a sigh of relief. "Someone stole her off of the beach she was born on. Supposed to be a conservation for the little things but someone broke in and stole it." "That's terrible, why would someone do that?" "Don't know, all we know is we caught a figure on our cameras, I've been looking all day for her." 

"I volunteer over for the program that handles making sure the sea turtles are ok," she said. "Here's my card and stuff." She flashed me a card to prove she indeed worked for, "The Conservation of Turtles and Aquatic Life, or the CTAL." "What do we do with her?" I asked. "If you hand her over I'll take her back to the beach so she can make the journey to the water." "Name's Kaylin," she said. "Walter," I said back. I had never thought about the life of a sea turtle. "You can't just place it in the water?" I handed her the turtle carefully and she propped the lid open so the girl could breathe. "No, they're all born on the beach," she said. "Would you want to come with me to see the process?" I hadn't any plans, so I figured I'd go. Oddly enough, prior to this moment I never took chances or did such things. Kaylin took me to the beach secluded away from the public. In no time she placed the baby turtle in the patch of sand where her brothers and sisters had been born. Old tracks had been covered by bits of sand due to the wind that day. It filled me with an intense sorrow. To think they had left her all alone, to finish a journey of an immense magnitude with no one to guide her.

We sat away, and above the beach on a balcony after placing her in the sand. "So, do a lot make it alive out there?" I asked. She shook her head no, "Only one or two turtles make the journey out of 1,000 after reaching the water." An unfathomable heaviness filled my heart. "Can't we just place her in the water?" "She has to know which beach to come back to." The turtle remained in its nest for a moment, as if it were preparing itself. I could only imagine the amount of anxiety it had felt. I know an animal is an animal, but this situation changed my perspective on them. I imagined her focusing on her breath and the path ahead. I imagined her closing her eyes, finding the strength to go forth. She was preparing for the journey of a lifetime, and she knew it could be her last.

But even with impending doom in mind, after the visible hesitation, she used her tiny body and flippers to crawl agonizingly across the immense beach. It left miniature tracks behind it, the hot sand ripping at the bottom of her stomach. I began to feel uneasy as I imagined what the turtle was feeling once more. I could hear and feel the endless internal struggle that tore through her being. I couldn't bear the option of her not making it; she had to make it. I watched her march toward another new world, completely foreign and full of danger, but yet she marched on without fear. This notion baffled me; was she not terrified? And if she were, how was she going on despite that nagging pang in her gut?

I stared at her and compared her to my own perception; she was but a speck on the oranged beach, the world's vast size was beyond calculation to her. But even with that in mind, nothing could stop her march, nothing could stop her journey towards the great beyond. She crawled so agonizingly slow. My eyes began to well with tears as I watched her use her hardened will to forge the path ahead. I imagined what she'd feel when she'd reach the cold waters. It was such a journey, and even in the water her chances of survival were low, but she somehow, again, found a way to keep going. 

I was entranced and repeatedly asked God for her to make it. I soon enough began to tremble. Quickly after this trembling I became aware of a new sad reality: vultures. She was almost near the water. I turned to Kaylin, "Do vultures eat turtles?" She only shook her head silently. Looking back now, she seemingly was deciding if it was time to act or not. My nerves lit up with chills as I heard somber violins play in the distance. Even with everything she had gone through she still had to face more. For God's sake this poor thing had to face more! After everything, after pushing and cracking from its egg, being stolen, and now nearly crossing a beach, it had to worry about vultures?!

The monsters began to circle over her as my tears began to flow even harder; I had no plans of stopping the waterfall. For what could I do but weep? I could almost hear her tiny pants, her grunting, and her own begging to make it herself. More insufferable creatures began to swarm the skies. Looking back, many appeared as if they were going to dive; I still can't figure out why they didn't. Perhaps in some way the world relented for a moment to let her win, or perhaps it relented in the face of true beauty. Perhaps life simply found a way to continue, or perhaps, or perhaps the girl got lucky; I'll never know. I anxiously looked at Kaylin, cracking my knuckles until nearly raw. How could she be so calm about this? "This fool," I thought of her. An animal was about to die and we were doing nothing to stop it.

With a giant, hearty breath, I readied myself to jump down to fend off the vultures, to fend off the turtles' afflictions and challenges, but Kaylin saw this and grabbed me, only saying, "Look." I followed the direction of her pointing finger. I immediately saw the turtle reach the crisp ocean. I lept, clapped and cheered as my eyes became blurred. "GO," I shouted. I shouted it over and over as I bounced. "GO, GO, GO!" I laughed and cried hysterically. Kaylin hugged me and I picked her up, spinning her with delight. I laughed through the tears, oh God I was so ecstatic. In no time I put her down; I had to see life happen with my own eyes.

She made it, she really made it! Even from our distance I could see the tiny speck floating in the vast ocean. It bobbled it's head in and out of the water so as to breathe. I could hear it's gasps, I could feel it's determination. Yet, even after it's grueling journey, it was peaceful. It floated so elegantly, so filled with poise. An entire ocean opened up to this tiny, insignificant creature. An entire consciousness was there and it remained swimming inside of it. It was now a part of infinity, it was part of something too immense even for my brain to grasp. How could I have been so blessed to see such an event? I began to cry harder imagining the life it would lead, and the life I had led thus far. I saw myself in that turtle, I saw the world in the turtle. My recent problems and afflictions became clearer to me, as if a gentle breeze removed a heavy fog. My life had become a beautiful play as I gazed at that same speck soar away toward it's destiny. That small turtle gave me hope.

The violins then brimmed with their somber notes, but they had now become triumphant in their playing. The turtle had done the impossible and crossed the threshold into an unbelievable consciousness.