Finding Nemo – A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

“When life gets you down – do you wanna know what you’ve gotta do? Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.” -Dory, Finding Nemo

Having watched Seaspiracy again last night, my thoughts today are swimming, exploding with crashing waves and plastic-laden, fishing boat-infested oceans, my heart and soul weeping for whales, dolphins, octopuses, sea turtles and all the other marine animals who only want to live there.

In my post today, I focus on the spectacular sea turtle. You probably know that nearly all species of sea turtle are now classified as endangered with three of the seven existing species including Kemp’s ridley being critically endangered. WWF and other organizations are committed to stopping the decline of sea turtles and works for the recovery of the species. Sea turtles like other marine animals face significant threats around the world including bycatch in commercial and recreational fisheries, and loss and degradation of nesting and foraging habitats due to coastal development, pollution, and climate change. In some areas, killing of turtles and collection of eggs for consumption. How incredibly sad is that!

On a brighter note, we can learn lessons from the sea turtle, as Mary Davis from Everyday Spirit tells us in her joyful and hopeful blog post entitled Lessons Learned from a Sea Turtle:

DETERMINATION

Oh, just think of the determination that fills her fierce mama heart, paddling hundreds – sometimes thousands of miles – following the mysterious calls of energy, magnetism, stars and ancestry, to nest on the shore of her birth.

“Just keep swimming,” she might sing to herself on the way, borrowing a tune from her fish friend Dory.

The determined mama alternately paddles and rides the currents, flowing with grace, until she arrives home on the beach where she was born.

PERSEVERANCE

With an air of acceptance and perseverance, she drags her heavy body (200 to 400 lbs) from the lightness of the water to the weight of the sand on slow rhythmic flippers, crossing the beach several inches at a time until she reaches the dune line.

These are the only hours in her life that she spends out of the water.

Like us, she is having that ‘fish out of water’ feeling.

We are with you, Mama.

MINDFULNESS

Such mindfulness she exhibits as she watches, listens, feels … for the right spot to dig her nest, stopping mid-beach and making a U-turn, dragging her body full of eggs back to the sea if anything is not in alignment.

If there is too much seaweed, a noise or a light out of place, the smell of a sea bird or a bobcat, despite the effort of slogging up the sand after the big swim, she is out of there.

This is not the time for compromise.

It might be the turtle version of something my daughter Maya has said to me many times over the years: “Mom, if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a hell no.”

(I’m pretty sure sea turtles think this way too.)

PATIENCE

When Mama finds her spot, with incredible patience, she digs a deep hole at the sand, flippers diligently shoveling one scoop at a time until she is confident that it is deep enough to protect her precious young.

She goes into a quiet trance, (just like us meditating!), as she lays her eggs.

Isn’t is amazing how many beautiful things are birthed during meditation?

RELEASING THE OUTCOME

After laying her eggs and camouflaging the nest with flying flippers and sand, she releases the outcome of her efforts – most likely to her higher power.

She does not wait around for her young ones to hatch. She does not wonder how many of her 110 kids will be boys or girls. She does not worry about how many will actually make it to the sea.

She does not helicopter parent in any way.

No. She has faith.

She plays her vital role in preserving the species and gives it everything she’s got, then surrenders the results to the forces of nature, to the wonders of the earth, to the power of divine order.

SINGING AND SWIMMING

Oh, sweet mama, thank you for showing us that birthing new things can be very hard work.

But that it is possible. Even under the most difficult circumstances.

There is hope.

It will take strength, determination, perseverance, acceptance, mindfulness, attention to our inner voice, patience, focus and surrender to something greater than we are.

And along the way we will be singing to ourselves and to each other.

Singing an alleluia of encouragement.

Singing a song of strength.

Singing a gospel of gratitude.

Singing an affirmation of self-compassion and self-love.

Singing a prayer of oneness.

Just keep swimming, we will sing to each other.

No matter how slow, difficult and isolating this whole thousand-mile journey feels, we are not alone, and the love we birth and offer to our new world matters.

The love we birth now matters.

In whatever form it takes.

The love we birth now truly matters.

In the mess and in the mystery;

In the broken-heart and in the beautiful;

In the tears and in the tenderness;

In the hardest days and in the hope;

In the grief and in the grace – we are birthing this love together.

Let’s keep swimming.