During walkabout today, I had a wonderfully delightful conversation with a friend who shared this great artwork and talked about sea turtles.

• Did you know that female sea turtles swim to shore between May and August to dig nests in the sand and lay their eggs?
• Did you know that months later, the eggs hatch and the baby turtles follow the pure light of the moon back to the surf and their families?
• Did you know sea turtles loved the sea?  🙂

Sea turtles instinctively crawl toward the brightest light.  On an undeveloped beach, this light would naturally be the moon, but on a developed beach area, this light comes from homes, businesses, or other sources.  Sometimes this artificial light causes the baby turtles to move in the wrong direction, thus creating a bad outcome for all.

In the course our conversation, it occurred to me again how we sometimes face this same challenge when making good choices here at school (and I spend a great deal of time talking and modeling ‘good choices’ you know!).  🙂  This particular little friend spends some time with me occasionally for “refreshers.”  It’s simple really:  rather than follow the path of a good choice, we get distracted by something artificially bright moving us in the wrong direction.  Often times, we sabotage ourselves.  Just like the sea turtles, we forget to follow our path and allow meaningless things to keep us from being our personal best.

What a powerful analogy, huh?!  Just like this positive opportunity today, I encourage you to take time to talk with your child about those busy, meaningless distractions that get in the way and how best to focus on the priorities leading to ultimate success.  Just like those sea turtles, there’s an ocean of possible pathways if we follow the pure light.