A New Day Dawning

   As I sat in church last Sunday morning, just thinking about the changes in my life, and wondering what to do now. Events had kinda closed in on me, and I needed to get some Godly clarification of my situation.

   So I thought, what could I do to get a change of scenery, be alone and have the time to pray and think and whatever else might help. Dwayne came to mind and in particular, his beach house at Kiawah.

   So I called him after I got home, got the OK to use it for a few days this week, packed up and took off for Kiawah, SC.

   Now Dwayne has a nice place there. It is close to the beach with all the perks.

   Oops, this is the house right on the beach across the street. I did not have the code to this one.

   A little smaller, but it was quiet, still had some stuff in the fridge, and was calling my name.

   When I was talking to a friend about the fact that I did not know what to do in some of the situations I faced, and that I kept trying to project some bad scenarios into the future, a verse was mentioned talking about the fact that God's mercies are new every morning. I knew that, but I kept wanting to worry about the bad things that could happen. This became my mantra every new day on this mini retreat.

   So I got up early on Monday morning, taking the path to the beach, which was deserted at this early time, at least an hour before sunrise.

   Sure enough, a new day was coming.

   As I walked north on the beach, at least I thought it was north after consulting the map in my mind, I noticed some weird tracks heading from the waves to the dunes. I had seen some sea turtle nests staked off earlier, and wondered if a mother turtle had laid some eggs in the sand above the tide line.

   Some people, all with green shirts on, were close by and I went to ask the "touristy" question. What was going on?

   They were the turtle patrol, checking the nests that were already marked, and looking for evidence of new ones from the night before. They confirmed that a sea turtle had indeed come up in the night, deposited her eggs and made her way back to the water.

   I'm not sure which tracks are going inland and which are heading back to the sea, but you can see two sets in this shot.

   We have a sea turtle center on Jekyll Island, next door to St. Simons, but this was the first time I had come across tracks in the sand on one of my walks.

   So that was neat, but there was another new day in my future here.

   The next morning, another early walk on the beach, with another dawn in the making over behind the clouds on the horizon, and another discovery.

   After walking south this time for a couple of miles, I turned around to head back to the house and noticed a bunch of people walking from the dunes to the water's edge. There were more of the green shirts in that group, and they stopped near the waters edge, all looking at something.

   The turtle eggs in a nest up in the dunes on that end of the Island had hatched, and the little ones were moving haphazardly toward the ocean. I don't know, and did not ask, if these were the first from the nest or maybe the last, but there were several small sea turtle babes getting ready for an adventure into the ocean waves.

   One day tracks and a new nest, the next a birthing and new lives.

   I don't say that God did that for me, but He did put me in a spot where I could celebrate the beginning of life, the perfect way to experience His new mercies, and the dawning of a New Day of Promise.

   If Sea Turtles can be a sign from The Lord, then I rejoice in a future of New Days, and new mercies crowning each one.

   And I say Thank You, as I walk smiling back to the house.

   And even a little flower pops up to further brighten my day.