A lovely day here on Turtle Island

Why did the turtle cross the road?    To lay her eggs!

This may be the week that rewards us for living here the other 51. [I hope I haven’t jinxed us.] The weather is a delight. The air is full of dragonflies feeding on the swarms of mosquitos. Yesterday a painted turtle visited the front yard. We have no idea whether it’s still hunkered under the front stoop, where she was last seen disappearing.

This morning I noticed the beardtongue buds are beginning to turn into flowers. Also this morning I noticed a different painted turtle crossing a gravel road a couple of miles from the house. She hunkered at the road’s edge as I drove past slowly in the Jeep. Columbine flowers are blooming in scattered sites around the yard.

painted turtle crossing gravel road

Photo by J. Harrington

My presumption is that each of the turtles I saw is a female on an egg-laying mission. It is that time of year. As we noted the other day about whitetail fawns, it’s heartening to see reproductive success being sought or delivered as the countryside greens up.

local turtle crossing sign

Photo by J. Harrington

All of this reminds me of what’s probably my all time favorite origin story. It’s embedded in an essay by Robin Wall Kimmerer in emergence magazine. The title is Ancient Green: Moss, Climate, and Deep Time. It’s worth your time to read if you want to know about Turtle Island.

Ode to Langston

By Dawn Quigley

Langston, we too, sing  Turtle Island.

We are the 574 Nations.

They want to hide us

In the past tense,

Yet we love,

And dream,

And are still here.

Today, now,

We are at the oval table

As our women lead.

Nobody can ever

Say to us,

“Natives lived, Natives ate, drank, led.”

We are present tense.

Because,

They will know what we’ve always known

And be humbled—

We, too, sing  Turtle Island.

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