Turtle makes annual trek.
Little Turtle carries home with her. No matter where she goes, there she is. How beautiful.
There is a turtle who seems to cross from south to north
through our property about this time each year. It goes from one small creek to another. We put up a fence for Finn last
year in the back yard where the trek usually took place.
What will happen this year? Will the turtle return? Will is
get confused or just go around the fence?
Apparently, the birds and trees must have warned the little
turtle. It crossed our property in front of the house this time.
The anxiety was all mine.
I am reminded of a week-long silent meditation I was on in March of this year. The words "Turtle Mountain" kept coming up for me. It had something to do with the quiet silence of being with oneself no matter where I was or what is going on.
In Chinese lore, the back is the human body part connected to mountain energy. Unlike mouth that speaks or ears that hear, back is just there supporting activity. The symbol of back as earth's mountains is that one can experience them as easy such as coming down the mountain or resting on a boulder, or taxing as one climbs up the mountain. Sometimes effort is called for; sometimes rest is required.
Back/Mountain is always there in a self-contained way. It is deeply sacred space and unknowable. You cannot take it all in, yet there are glimpses of its grandeur.
On this day of the turtle crossing, it feels like we have our own little sacred Turtle Mountain. In the silence, we exchange gratitude for this intersection of human and turtle on earth's back.
