Physically Distanced but Spiritually Connected
A Turtle and A Saint

 a red-eared slider laying eggs at North Pond Nature Sanctuary

Dear Mayfield,
In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox portions of the Christian Church, there is a tradition of recognizing, remembering and honoring the feast days of saints. Yesterday, June 24th, was the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, the feisty figure in the desert, also called the forerunner, who prepared the way for Jesus to follow after him. In the stories of John the Baptist that we read during Advent and Epiphany, before and after Christmas, we come upon the Greek word “metanoia.”  It is frequently translated “repent.” Taken to its roots, the word means to change direction, to reorient oneself. In the biblical narrative, John the Baptist prepares the way for the radical reorientation of life that Jesus will invite others to enter, those he met on the roads of his ministry and those who meet him in the stories that have been repeated for several thousand years now.

When I encountered this mama turtle, a red-eared slider, she was intent on laying her eggs. She had come up a little bit from North Pond to scoop out mulch and the earth beneath it on a pathway where she would deposit and then cover over her cache of eggs. I was worried about her vulnerability, out in the open on that soft, narrow pathway. All that egg action takes a bit of time. I was also worried about her eggs and if they were well enough concealed on a pathway that some of us use regularly. When I next visited that spot by the pond, she was nowhere to be seen, and the path appeared smooth and undisturbed. And I stopped worrying so much for the moment.

Mama Turtle made me think of John the Baptist. She too sought out a pathway where she could leave the stuff from which new life emerges. There were no guarantees that the action she took would be successful. Just as there were no guarantees for John that people would be willing to shift their direction toward an openness and willingness to grow in response to Jesus.

Mama Turtle made me wonder about all of us too.We are trying to arrive at a pathway that has some semblance of sense for us right now. Through this extended Covid-19 time, we ask questions regarding the earth and our fractured relationship with it. We are mindful of any contributions we have to give to relieve the current deep economic stress. We refuse to turn away and instead expose our hearts to the witness of Black Lives Matter. And we decide today, tomorrow, and the next day to wear masks, to physically distance, to wash hands, and to stay at home as much as possible. These are concrete commitments to our wellbeing and the wellbeing of those near and far. This is about turning around, or redirecting ourselves to grab hold of our fuller participation along the pathway to new life for an ever-widening circle of others. There are choices here for us to make.again and again. Can we move beyond the annoyances, the losses, and the limitations of right now to recall that we are ones who are meant to lay and protect eggs of new life.  We face vulnerability and unknowing without sure and certain guarantees just as John the Baptist and one Mama Red-Eared Slider did before us. But we do have the strong advantage of their parallel examples of how we might dare to prepare for new life.
Peace, Martha