Turtle Tales

And what do they have to do with writing?

I’m taking a breather from the intense energy and seriousness of the week to talk about…Turtles!

Turtles are everywhere in my house. This one sits on my dresser and holds one of the few rings I wear.

My love affair with Turtles began at an early age.

When I was a child, we would make a yearly summer trek up to Crawford Lake in Northern Michigan. Up North, we Michiganders like to call it.

We were only there for a week, it was a teeny cabin on a mucky lake, but I loved every minute of it.

I can still smell the Pine trees when we would get out of the car. It’s one of my favorite scents in the whole wide world.

I’m sipping Pine needle tea right now.

In the front of the row of log cabins, it was all sunshine, but it was behind the cottages that held the magic for me.

There were big old shade trees with a hammock hung for each cottage and rowboats pulled up on the shore.

Back then, I was terrified of water. It’s always felt past-life-ish to me. And maybe the fact that I always had earaches as a child.

It was my Aunt Edna who finally helped me at around age eight to get over my fear and swim underwater.

But Crawford Lake was seriously mucky, and even my older sister offering me $5.00 to swim in it was a no way.

But the rowboat? That was my favorite thing to do. Remember the photo of my mother in the post I wrote about her? I still prefer a rowboat to a jet ski any day.

I’m sure my older sister, Sue, will appreciate me sharing this photo of us on Crawford Lake back in the day. :)

Back then, I was Barbie. Yikes! It took me years for my family to stop calling me that. And another couple of decades for them to stop calling me Barb.

But I digress.

My heart skipped a beat when I found this photo of the rowboat. It was old and worn but so darn special.

As soon as I was old enough to row across the small lake myself, I would hurry out in the morning, turn over the boat (often a frog or two would hop out!), and haul it into the water.

There, across the lake, in the early morning, I would find the Turtles sunning themselves on the logs. Or on the lily pads.

I sat in rapture watching them. Sliding off the logs. Their little heads would pop back up. The air bubbles.

I couldn’t get enough of those Turtles.

One year I took one home with me. I had one of those tacky plastic “turtle homes” with a palm tree and a ramp.

I immediately felt the cruel error of my ways. I would let him swim in the bathtub and eventually returned him to a lake, but the damage was done. I had taken him far away from his home.

I don’t know what it was about Turtles that captivated me so much. Even as a little girl, I would think about how they could hide in their shells and be protected.

I was such a shy, introverted child that I felt a connection with this animal.

As an adult, my heart still skips a beat when I happen upon a Turtle or two.

Fast forward many, many years, and I found myself quite serendipitously in a shamanic journeying workshop with Hank Wesselman at the Omega Institute in Upstate NY.

We talked about animal totems. Animal spirits. Power animals. And then we prepared to meet up with ours on a journey to the Lower World.

This was a new world to me.

I found myself in a predicament, though, when claustrophobia reared its ugly head (more past life stuff??), and I was unable to imagine myself traveling through an opening in the earth and into the Lower World.”

Even as a child, caves and tunnels and tight spaces were panic-inducing.

But, I took a deep breath, and on round two, somehow, I was able to project myself down through the earth with zero expectations of what animal spirit might greet me.

Lo and behold, it was my beloved Turtle.

I returned from that journey with the biggest smile on my face.

It was many years later before this practice became a regular part of my life. And now, there’s a whole group that welcomes me to the Lower World when I visit.

Is there a wild animal in your life that seems to show up over and over? Maybe even from childhood? If so, that’s a clue as to who might be an animal spirit guide for you if you so desire.

My relationship with Turtle has evolved over the years. Usually, I felt a sense of self-protection and a slow but sureness from my animal spirit guide.

And then, around 2018 or 2019, I don’t remember exactly, something shifted.

I was in a shop in NYC and happened upon an oracle deck called “The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Deck and Guidebook” by Kim Krans. I brought it home and started doing daily card pulls.

I was going through a real drought with my writing at the time. I was supposed to be working on a book that I was guided to write (more on that another time) but at a complete standstill.

And although there are “63 creatures from both the earthly and mystical realms,” I seemed to pull the same half-dozen cards over and over again.

Of course, Turtle was one of them!

From “The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Deck and Guidebook” by Kim Krans

First of all, what Kim writes about each of the 63 animals/creatures is remarkable. I have owned a lot of oracle cards in my life, but these are pretty much the only ones I reach for anymore.

And while I only pick cards occasionally now, I still seem to end up with Turtle so many times.

Bear in mind that the first time I laid eyes on this card, I was hopelessly struggling with my writing.

TURTLE

ANCIENT SOUL, GROUNDED, TRUSTING, AT HOME IN THE SELF

It is wonderful to be in the presence of a Turtle personality. Like the Beaver, the Turtle has a strong relationship with the Earth and Water elements simultaneously. This helps to ground and connect them to the deeper truths of life, no matter where their travels lead them. Turtle energy is behind all great writers and storytellers as they collect life experiences under their shells for later use. The most potent Turtle energy helps us close all the other books and begin to tell our own true tale.

I pulled the Turtle card before I began writing on Substack last August. I have started to tell my stories. Maybe it will be these stories that find their way into the book I was directed to write.

I pulled the Turtle card before writing this post.

You can’t make this up.

Something about writing on this platform has unleashed writing energy in me, and I can’t keep up with the stories I want to tell.

The first summer here in my new home in New Hampshire, my spirit animal made an unexpected appearance.

It was a beautiful June day in 2021, and I stepped out onto my patio and almost onto a huge snapping turtle! We looked at each other, equally surprised, and she scurried into the tall grass.

Later that afternoon, I went out again and saw her in my herb garden next to the house, standing with her head facing my garden gnome! You can’t see him in this photo but hang on.

My friend informed me (remember I’d just come from the big city) that it was turtle egg-laying season. She had probably come across the road from the swampy nature preserve. Evidently, they like sandy spots, and my herb garden fits the bill.

Still, she was just checking it out.

The next day I saw her sunning herself on the rocks behind the house.

And then, the next day, I saw this in the spot where she’d been the day before:

Clear evidence by the disturbed sand that she’d buried her eggs.

Of course, I panicked, knowing that I had a frequent chipmunk visitor whose hidey hole was just alongside the garden. And numerous other predatory animals in the area.

I ran to the hardware store for some wire to protect the nest, but by the next morning, there was already a little tunnel about the size of a chipmunk going straight for the spot.

Chip must have thought he hit the jackpot.

Such is Nature, as I’m learning with each year I’m here.

Turtle mothers lay their eggs and never return.

I checked that spot every day for months but never saw any sign of baby turtles hatching.

About a month later, there was another mound of disturbed sand in the same garden alongside the house.

And the following summer, the same thing happened, and I almost stepped on the mother turtle.

Several years ago, I happened upon the documentary “Turtle: The Incredible Journey.” You can still rent it, and I’m telling you, it’s worth every penny.

When I first saw it, I was watching it alone, shouting at the tv to the little newborn Turtle being chased by a crab, “Run!! Hurry UP!!!!!”

It is a remarkable film about these remarkable creatures. It made me feel bad again about taking that little Turtle from the lake away from his home.

Last year, not long before I started writing on Substack, I went on a shamanic journey to the Lower World. The Wolf was there to greet me. So were the Bear, the Pigeon, and the Lioness.

All of a sudden, ambling down the path in the forest, I saw Turtle. When he got close to me, I noticed pieces of paper sticking out from under his shell. Confused at first, I remembered the message from the Turtle card in the oracle deck, and I laughed out loud.

I reached down and pulled one of the papers out from under his shell. It read, “Time to write your stories. Especially the animal ones.”

I hope you’re enjoying my stories as much as I’m enjoying writing them.

Much Love,
Barbara