Who doesn’t love sea turtles! This beautiful creature was nestled inside a velvety hole in a vertical wall - about 60 feet beneath the surface. She wasn’t content where she was. Slowly, she nudged herself out of the seclusion of that snug little resting place, did a 180 degree about face, looked at the expanse of the sea and spread those lovely “wings” taking off into the blue… gracefully, peacefully gliding into open space. I felt an imagined shared yearning for freedom, for newness, for flying - not drifting - into open places. It was a moment…. and these turtles, well, they are simply majestic creatures under almost any circumstances! As you may have heard before, “Cowabunga Dude!”
(I took this photo diving in Bunaken, August 2019, during a brief “get-away” breather, after a week-long service trip in Jakarta, Indonesia.)