The Great Turtle

He comes to greet me, his head huge, his eyes wide open, all seeing, all knowing. I have seen him before and he is a fearsome looking creature, but only for his size. Who would believe that a turtle could be so large? But he is and rightly so. He has had centuries to grow, eons to learn and he lives in the silence. His only sound that of my breath as I gaze quietly at him.

And then it is time to go. Always it is time to go when he comes. I climb upon his back, place my hands on the shell right behind his head and we are off. Once I was frightened. Sometimes I still feel that fear creep up on me, but I know that I am safe. The Great Turtle never leaves me. He is always here.

I wonder where we are going in this muddy little Illinois river. Usually, he comes to me in the ocean, deep under the rolling waves of a universe that is moving quicker and quicker, but lately he has come inland and today we travel under the Mackinaw. I see great catfish lying on the bottom, their gelatinous bodies barely moving. I see the leftover dregs of humanity tumbled up among the rocks, and the winter skeletons of plants. Then we dip down and enter a cave!

Inside there is light, a shimmering that pulls my eyes upward. The air vibrates with an energy I cannot name. It pulses through me in invisible waves, stirring the atoms in my soul and then I see them. Above me, nearly three hundred feet above me, are roots! Long tenuous roots, thick solid roots, all hanging down into this cave where I am standing on the back of the Great Turtle. Roots that belong to even greater trees.

And then I know it is their connection I feel, as if it were their life blood, the flowing of their life force throughout the world. Each one only an extension of the whole. Each one the only one, with shared memories, shared thoughts, shared love.

They know me, remember me climbing into their arms to hide as a little girl. Reaching into my heart they know my love. They have seen me in the mountains and in the fields. They have watched me through my windows and as I passed them by in cars. Yet, this is the first time they have allowed me in, let me share their sacred space. These old ones will never leave the earth. They grow old and as they fall apart, their essence is simply absorbed into those nearby. Who would have ever thought!

I am exhausted. I lay my head against the Great Turtle's head and he brings me back, gently allows me to return to that which is familiar to me and slowly sinks back into the waters. I am at peace. I have felt the heartbeat of the earth, heard the lullaby of the universe as she soothes this gargantuan child that will always be attached to her womb. And I have ridden on the back of a Great Turtle to feel the love of One manifested as all.