A Small Victory

Click on photos to enlarge!Hawaiian Hawksbill Sea Turtle

"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously."

Hubert Humphrey

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"The best way to realize the pleasure of feeling rich is to live in a smaller house than your means would entitle you to have."
Edward Clarke

Lunch in Chinatown

"The basic work of health professionals in general, and of psychotheripists in particular, is to become full human beings and to inspire full human-beingness in other people who feel starved about their lives."

Chogyam Trungpa

All those sleepless nights finally paid off. And, honestly, weren't they fun? Camping on remote Big Island (Hawaii) beaches, talking story deep into the night, as the hoku (stars) surge and spiral above. . .

From June to December for 20 years now the volunteers have spent island-hot days in coastal Puna and Ka`u trapping mongoose, feral cats and rats. For these are the culprits who feast on the hatchlings.

Our local population of Hawaiian Hawksbill Sea Turtles was in obvious decline. Finally, the volunteers decided to act; Not only culling predators, but even guarding nest sites for long nights until conditions were fulfilled.

Sometimes, wrapped in purpose & wonder on those velvet nights, the humans even witnessed an immemorial scene: female turtles emerging from the surf, hauling inch by inch, to the high water mark where they lay, and then bury, their 150 eggs. Volunteers listened to their labored breathing in the dark, a sound more ancient than the first baby's cry.

Then the mama turtles resumed their submarine flight, never knowing that guardians were standing by.

Interspecies angels.

But today turtle numbers are climbing again. One small victory in the pilgrimage of conscience. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia