How Baby Sea Turtles Teach us About Resilience
We are living in uncertain times, where every day we are bombarded with news of climate disasters, ongoing wars, and various other challenges around the world. Between the negative news and being in Costa Rica a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been thinking about the Olive Ridley sea turtles that I had the opportunity to watch hatch at Ostional Beach—a protected wildlife refuge in Costa Rica–on a previous visit.
The baby turtles face quite a challenge when they hatch. First, they have to climb out of the nest where their mama buried the eggs. All the siblings will struggle to reach sunlight. Females can lay over 100 eggs in one nest. The hatchlings climb over one another and use their flippers to push sand out of the way to reach the beach.
Next, the hatchlings have a long and dangerous walk across at least one hundred yards of sand to get to the ocean. On this journey, they are at risk of being flipped over or thrown off track by obstacles in their path, like driftwood, footprints left by people, or, worse, a nearby predator.
I witnessed the quickening pace of the baby turtles as they reached the wet sand with their goal of the ocean in sight. Yet the struggle was far from over. A wave would come in and send the poor turtles tumbling back, sometimes leaving them upside down. I watched as some turtles rested for a moment, while others pushed on—determined to make it past the waves into the water. There’s no doubt that turtles have a rough start to life. However, our guide told us, “It is in the struggle that the turtles develop their lungs for living in the ocean.”
It’s the challenge that gives the turtles what they need to survive.
The turtles’ journey is symbolic of life transitions and obstacles like the ones we are facing right now. Sometimes when we are moving through a significant life event, we might feel like we take two steps, or tumbles, back for every step forward. We might lose our way. We might even experience a setback so challenging that we need to take a moment to rest, reset, or get our bearings before we can move forward again. We may move sideways for a bit until we find the strength to go on.
All of those things are okay and are part of the process of change. By facing setbacks, we develop new skill sets, gain wisdom, and build strength and resilience. Eventually, we realize we’ve reached it—our new way of being (or in the case of the turtle, the ocean)—but there are always new challenges to face. Even in the relative safety of the sea, there are new threats the turtle may not yet know about. The same goes for us. There are always new challenges lurking around the corner.
Life is full of unexpected turns and turmoil, but that’s all part of the journey. Our struggles make us who we are. By consistently picking ourselves up, we learn what’s at our core—what makes us tick. We evolve, grow, and mature.
We will overcome the setbacks we encounter, and may become more resilient and even more compassionate in the process.