Passage I

A Natural Wonder

You sit in the bright silver moonlight on a beach where its 10,000 miles from home. You are on the east coast of Malaysia. You hear the soft, steady sound of the surf and feel the gentle touch of the warm breeze against your skin. Barefoot, you wiggle your toes into the damp sand. You cross your arms and lean forward against your upraised knees. You are waiting.

Then they come out of the sea, and are three massive turtles. They are giant leatherback turtles, seven feet long and weighing 1,000 to 1,500 pounds. They can live to be more than a hundred years old. (3) Each year they return here to lay their eggs, in the place where they themselves were hatched.

You watch as each of them slowly dig a hole and fill it, one egg at a time, in which there are over a hundred eggs. The eggs are bright white and about two inches in diameter. You were watching as each turtle then slowly, laboriously, buries the eggs, turning in circle after circle, pushing sand back into the holes with surprisingly efficient flippers.

[1] You notice that the turtles' eyes are covered with a shiny liquid. [2] You know that this liquid has a scientific explanation: they keep they're eyes moist and clear of particles. [3] It looks as if they've been crying. [4] Nevertheless, you may prefer to think of them as emotional teary-eyed, over creating new life. (11)

The process takes hours, but you remain quiet and still. It is all being watched by you. You are looking at the sight of these odd, slow, determined beings and their prehistoric ritual. And one realizes that there is nothing quite as astounding as witnessing one of life's more subtle and elusive natural wonders.