far from home

Guido found a turtle in the driveway this morning. He wouldn't stop herding something, and I was shocked to see this thing "running" in circles (of course, I use that word lightly). Neighbors have a pond, and that's probably where he came from. It's laughable to think of this water creature making his way half a mile through forest, pine needles, tall grass, around logs and boulders to where we'd find him in our driveway. He was 100 yards from field fence he would not have fit through, so he would've had to go hard left or right for another hundred yards, and then who knows where?!

I wondered if there was some cool spiritual analogy here, but other than wandering in the dust when I could be livin' it up at the beach, I don't see anything else. Not that that's not a worthy meditation; getting lost is no fun. Having absolutely no internal GPS to get you back home--yuck. I felt like a bit like a Pharisee as I thought, Thank You, Lord, that I am not like him. That only intensified as Ryan scooped him up into a bucket and trekked back through the woods to the pond. All the while, Turtle scraped vigorously at the slick bucket walls and strained to escape this new confine, his neck at a constant, uncomfortable-looking 90 degree angle.

Thank You, Lord, that I am not a turtle far from home. That's a prayer I never imagined I'd pray with such sincerity.