Turtle on the Edge - The Crossing - Part 1

A turtle stood on the brink of destruction, considering her next move. The handiwork of a creature that she could neither understand nor contemplate, it was an avenue to a destination she would never see, and didn't care to visit. To the turtle, this manufactured path presented nothing but an obstacle, a barrier to her continued existence, and a disruption to her way of life. Nonetheless, there it was, and she had no choice but to cross.

To this day, some of the old turtle sages speak of a time when these black tar and rock strips of desert didn't rape the earth and leave her barren; but their nursery rhymes and hatchlings' tales offer little comfort now to newer generations of mothers. They have never known a time when reproduction didn't involve the risk of crossing another's road to world domination. "The ants will eat you slowly but at least you know you're going. That road will take you before you ever know what hit you... so say goodbye before you leave as if you will never return." The moral of the stories is always the same.

So this turtle, on her Crossing, her initiation into this new rite that all mothers shared, was standing still watching, patiently waiting, anticipating the future and feeling quite scared. She kept her brave face, because to show fear was to give victory to something other than the Divine. It was not her survival that mattered now, it was the continuation of her shell-line that gave her life its meaning. She knew that she must do her part to ensure that others of her kind, with their unique understanding of reality and existence, found their way somehow into the future of this world.