Blog Your Blessings: Life in Turtle Time

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You stop the car and jump out. You lift him and carry him across the street. You place him near the water. He goes on. Again and again and again.

Because this world has more than its fair share of self-absorbed jerks who won't look, who won't care, who won't give a damn if they kill these guys.

Turtles are everywhere right now, and they are looking for partners to continue their bloodline. They have been here since the earliest of times, they have survived every circumstance Mother Nature has delivered, and now all they need to do is cross the road to keep on.

To survive, they must compete with the self -absorbed fools who will drive at top speeds in their shiny pick-up trucks to impress their girlfriends they are not afraid of the speeding ticket, the pedestrian, the geese, the turtles.

I spent a lot of last weekend helping turtles cross the road.

I spent a lot of last weekend thinking on the one turtle I helped cross the road but could not keep alive. Some brute in a silver pick-up drove over the back of him and crushed his shell and damaged his legs.

My daughter and I witnessed this heartless maiming. We watched this silent creature try to continue his journey across the road to do what he was meant to do--keep on. He lifted himself and dragged his damaged and bleeding body despite the trauma. 

I lifted him and placed him in some cool, tall grass. I apologized for the idiot in the truck. All the while, the blood streamed out of him, a horrifying crimson that told me life would soon be over for this animal. Because some heartless, self-centered man who didn't slow down to consider he was not the center of the universe but lived in a beautiful part of the world that hosts myriad life crushed him and moved right along.

Later that day, I stopped the car in a driving rain to chase another turtle across the road. Next day, a box turtle in no hurry at all let me take his picture before I brought him to safety. A few days later, I escorted a snapper across the road and into a swamp. "We're in this together, dude, so make it quick," I thought as cars zipped by.

Two women stopped to ask me if the snapper was mine. "Hell, yeah," I thought. "But he's got to do his own thing."

That little turtle who was crushed but kept on because you do what you do taught me all over again to love and honor life. 



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31 Comments

  1. What a nice metaphor about the turle & life! What a beautiful love you have for these tiny turtles! You're a good guide to teach them to cross the road.

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  2. interesting that some probably treat turtles like they do humans-smashing their lives as they are off having a good time...sound familiar?

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  3. And what a blessing you and your daughter are to these remaining turtles. . . hope the one that died got a nice burial. So sad. . . loved the photo!

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  4. well done Sandy My Dear Friend!

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  5. The saddest thing is that some might even run them over on purpose. I'm happy for the ones you saved. Makes me smile.

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  6. What a beautiful turtle!

    Around here it's the geese and goslings that I slow down for and hope that others will also give them some space.

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  7. What a beautiful post by a beautiful human!

    *Sob*
    The two sea turtles tattooed on my shoulder tell me they love you Sandy! Aloha

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  8. i thought i was the only one who stopped to help turtles cross the road it makes me ill when people are so thoughtless and run them over...great pic

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  9. Very nice post, Sandy, with a good picture of the turtle.

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  10. One of my favorite animals!

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  11. love the comparison
    thanks or sharing sandy

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  12. Anonymous3:59 AM

    I can't bear an injured creature on the road. And i have never, in all my days, seen a turtle in the road!

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  13. There's a great mataphor in that.
    In the UK this happens a lot with hedgehogs.

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  14. Anonymous5:18 AM

    And I cry for the little crushed turtle. Again.

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  15. You are a fine example how we can be one with Nature if we just open up our herats. Blessings to you for your
    compassionate heart! I love your for this! hugs

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  16. Oh my sad story. 'Humans' can be so careless and cruel towards animals. Glad you were able to help some others.

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  17. Sometimes I hate my fellow human beings. Thank goodness there are people like you!!! (((hugs)))

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  18. In Quebec they passed a law saying if an animal does damage on a car, like say a cow standing in the middle of a road, the cow owner is responsible, so the motorists , when they see an animal on the road speed up.
    My Golden was chasing a rabbit which taught him how to get through the cedar trees. I saw one woman speed up when she saw the dog but she had to slow down when I went on the street to save my dog.Now what if she couldn't stop in time?
    A similar car hit a neighbors cat right in front of my house.
    Some people are worse than animals.
    And the laws makers making these laws???......Really... Shame on them!!!

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  19. You are really a nice person. The heartbreaking thing to me about an injured animal is that try keep on going like they don't know they are injured, like the turtle you wrote about.

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  20. oh, how cute! i love turtles. my turtles ran away. haha.

    nice capture, sandy!

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  21. My firend in Montana tells me every year about the turles she's helped too, but you can't be there for all of them, and some fall to the idiots who run over turtles, not just because they can't be bothered to drive around them, but who intentionally aim for them, like it was some kind of sick sport. We humans have so much to answer for.

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  22. So much sadness and cruelty in the world. And so many kind, wonderful people like you Sandy. We must not forget either but it's better to focus on the good people. For me, that's what gets me through the tough times.

    Beautifully written post. Turtles have much to teach us too.

    Hugs, G

    PS: Just sent you an email.

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  23. Very sad about the turtle that didn't make it. But I'm glad you helped the others. My sister and her boyfriend helped a turtle here who was in the road, since she laid her eggs in the sandy soil near a bridge. Anytime we can help, it's a blessing.

    I love your picture - what an arresting and beautiful turtle.

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  24. This is going to leave me thinking for a while. It rings with such sadness, but it is lifted up with the beauty of your soul.

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  25. Poor thing.... I "rescued" a huge snapper a couple of summers ago. It was huge and vicious and didn't want to be rescued but he (she???) was so big that any car rounding the corner would have sustained damage.... not to mention damage to the turtle.

    No way to lift it without losing a limb and it would have been too big and heavy for me if I had been able to find a tree branch to get it to latch onto and carry. We just used someone's plywood "for sale" sign and bulldozed it to the ditch and hoped it didn't try to get across, again.

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  26. this is so sad, we have countless idiots killing animals on the streets here too. I am wondering what kind of heartless people they are. and I just hope in God, to make all wrong good...

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  27. From today's CNN...
    http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/28/cnnheroes.suzan.lakhan.baptiste/index.html

    Thought you might like it...

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  28. First off, fabulous photo! What luck you had such a cooperative model. And the story to go with it?

    Dammit don't you make me cry.

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  29. Sandy, you are a Turtle Angel! Thank you SO much for caring. And that's a fine photo.

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Thanks for being here.