My Thoughts on Turtles

By Rizah Valdez

Being a nature lover, taking nature walks and basking in its tranquility fills my cup. There's this nature reserve that I frequently visit near our neighborhood. On each visit, I enjoy the experience and the views. Most of the time I see birds flying freely, ducks swimming leisurely and turtles climbing and falling on floating logs in their pond.

Watching the baby turtles excitedly crawl to the top of the log, warms my heart. They climb as a group it seemed to me. Just as curious individuals would normally do when they find something interesting. The turtles seem to have an innate leaning toward adventure. The bold ones seemed to lead first and then the others followed. The funny part was that they appeared to sunbathe. But as soon as one of them recklessly moves, they all tumble and fall back on the murky water they just left behind to chill. These were some of my experiences during my nature walks.

However, there’s this one time I witnessed something different. For whatever reason, one turtle was flailing its limbs desperately in the air while floating on its shell. It seemed to have dropped on the wrong side helplessly. To add to the misfortune, it seemed to be alone at that time of the day. Poor turtle! I muttered to myself.

Interestingly, before I could think of anything I could do to help, out of the deep and the side of the pond, emerged several turtles. Slowly but surely, they were swimming in the direction of the one struggling, forming a circle of support. And the next thing you know, the flipped turtle was returned to its normal position no longer helpless.

That scene reminded me of a quote:

"Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat." - Napoleon Hill

From what I have witnessed, the flipped turtle’s misfortune led me to witness the wonderful teamwork among those turtles. They seemed to extend their helping shells and support their fellow turtle willingly.

How beautiful it would be if we humans would apply the thoughts I learned from those turtles.

To encourage instead of discourage;

To help instead of cause harm.

It seemed to me that turtles understood the words RESPECT and COMPASSION. They seemed to know when to respect their spaces and when to come together and lend their helping shells. These are my thoughts on turtles.

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The helpless turtle reminded me of the main characters humble beginnings in the Tempered Through Trials, Find out more about Brielle's and Claire's journey to personal transformation.  Buy Now, to read the rest of their story.