September 30, 2022

When my husband and I stepped onto our street for our evening walk earlier this week, we saw what looked to be a small rock, moving slowly down the street. Closer inspection revealed not some sort of natural phenomenon in the form of a mobile rock, but a newly hatched turtle. It was a tiny thing, right in the middle of the road.

There was no way to tell where it came from, but the road did not seem like the best place for our new friend to hang out, so my husband picked it up and we carried it about a 1/4 mile to the neighborhood pond, where we set it gently on the grassy bank.

For the rest of our walk, my inner over-thinker came out. What if the turtle had been born in a nest near our home and needed to be there for safety? Would the turtle be disoriented in its new surroundings? Was the street was where the turtle had wanted to be, and we messed it all up? I went back and forth between feeling like we did a good deed, and wondering if we caused unintended harm.

(Did I mention I am an over-thinker at times?!)

In the end, this was my conclusion: we'll never know. We'll never know if we did right by this turtle or not. All we can know is that we analyzed the situation, our hearts were in the right place, and with all good intentions we did what we thought was best. That's all we can know.

This is life. We are presented, over and over again, with situations for which we will not, and do not, have all of the answers. And none of us will ever do everything perfectly. The good news is aren't asked to or expected to. All we can do is do our best to act with kindness, good intention, and integrity. We can look to the stories of our ancestors for guidance. We can look to the teachings of Jesus for guidance. We can look into our own hearts, radiating the love of God out into the world. And we make our best decisions.

My prayer for you this week is to know that in all of your endeavors, your best is good enough for God. Which means it's good enough. Your heart, your integrity, your kindness, is enough. You are enough.