Swimming with Sea Turtles

Sunrise, Monday morning. I've just flown into Kauai the night before and am sprawled out in bed, trying to adjust my internal clock to a new time zone. I'm not a morning person as it is without having to deal with the hours of my day shifting back. Suddenly my mom rushes into my room. "Tim! Quick! There are sea turtles in the water outside our condo!" Intrigued by the thrill of seeing wild turtles, but still half-asleep, I shuffle out of my room and onto our deck overlooking the ocean. Sure enough, thick shells and scaly heads are poking in and out of the waves crashing on the rocks outside our accommodations. My sleepiness overcome, I remain on the deck for quite a while, newly fascinated by these majesties of the sea.

This early-morning experience created a newfound fascination for sea turtles within me, and I fell in love with the grace and beauty of these gentle green giants. I instantly eyed any marine book in every gift shop we visited and quickly flipped through it, searching for colorful sea turtle photographs. And whenever we encountered a piece of art centered on sea turtles, my attention was immediately commandeered.

Finally, on Saturday morning, my fascination reached ultimate fulfillment. Donning a swim mask, I headed out for the cove next to our condo. I caught sight of a few fish here and there, but I had seen those before. I had a different goal in mind for today. I wanted to swim with the sea turtles! Though they they tend to feed some distance from shore, it was not difficult for me to swim out to their feeding grounds. Soon I found myself sharing the waves with some of the most beautiful creatures in the entire ocean. I watched in awe as these turtles drifted back and forth, paddling into crevices for a nibble of seaweed, then darting out again into slightly deeper waters. The turtles weren't intimidated by my presence, either because of their size or perhaps past experience with humans. They took no notice to me, and thought nothing of lazily floating up beside me in search of food. The time I spent under the water with these majestic creatures was truly remarkable, and I will honestly never forget it!

As I returned to our condo, I reflected on my awesome experience and came to lament my lack of an underwater camera. "It's too bad I couldn't get some pictures," I thought. "I bet some of those would have sold nicely online." All during our vacation I've been capturing artistic shots with my camera in hopes that I'll finally be able to break into the micro-stock photography business. Some underwater sea turtle shots may have been just the thing!

At this point, I noticed that there were two things wrong with my thinking. For one, even if my camera were waterproof, I would likely need much more equipment than I own in order to capture any worthwhile shots. But secondly and more important, I realized that I had completely overshadowed the experience I just had. No matter how much a picture of a sea turtle might sell for, it would never ever be more valuable than the actual time I spent in the presence of those underwater beauties. I had just enjoyed a rarest opportunity with God's creation, and was disappointed that I couldn't turn that opportunity into a money-making venture.

The Mastercard ads have gotten it right all these years. There really are some things that money can't buy, such as a swim with the sea turtles of Kauai.

As for your snorkeling equipment, Mastercard will cover that.
T.H. Excellence