 |
| Turtle at the Ithaca Children's Garden copyright 2011, Caris Cerdwyn, all rights reserved |
Turtles are said to be one of the symbols of the Feminine Divine. Native peoples' have creation stories that revolve around the turtle carrying the world upon its back.
Snapping turtles are tenacious, and they can be about as nasty as any creature one can imagine meeting. They hiss at the dangers they encounter. Not as prone to more peaceful solutions as some other kinds of turtle.
Sea turtles are gorgeous creatures...well some of them. I'm not sure about some of the shelless varieties. A sea turtle moves slowly on land, but once in its element, it can swim sixty miles an hour!!! That seems so amazing to me.
Turtles seem to be one of my totems. I can be found rescuing them as they cross busy roads. I am quick to pull into my shell at the first sign of danger, though I can be tenacious about some things! And put me in my element and you'll see amazing things happen.
It's odd that I can't wax eloquent on the topic of turtles. There was Fred of course. If you've been following my blog you'll know the story of Fred. And there was an extraordinarily beautiful painted turtle I found in my childhood. It was the most beautiful thing I think I've ever seen. It was really big for a turtle in Nebraska. I suppose snappers grow that big there. But this was not a snapper. It was an amazingly gorgeous turtle that came to me for a very short time. That story has a very sad ending that I won't tell you about.
My most recent encounter with a turtle was a very large snapping turtle crossing the road to get to some unknown destination. I was going to try and help him across, but that was not to be. I had no leather gloves in my trunk. No burlap bag there either. Mary Oliver is a good influence on me for many things, but I don't quite have her courage in the matter of snapping turtles. I left him to his own devices. And sometimes, that's not such a bad thing. I think he made it across. Let's hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment