Feels Good to be A Turtle

I just love being a turtle. I just realized it today when my human mother was speaking to me. She was wondering aloud to me what it must be like to be a turtle and I was wishing I could open my mouth and explain it to her. She doesn’t currently understand everything I say when I blink my eyes or flitter my back flippers. Duh…. it means I’m happy! She was explaining to me that it’s been raining for a few, if not several days. Not that I was really wondering about the rain, although, I was wondering why we haven’t gone out into the grass or played with the dog. I do so enjoy getting outside in the sunrays of the earth. I am growing really fast even with only the sun of my lamp. Finally about to lose some of my scutes… This here, this is the real joy of being a turtle. My turtle shell! This thing rocks. Pardon the pun please, as I know that I must resemble a rock at times, but that is only because my Plastron is changing colors. Getting darker. My plastron is the top of my shell. The carapace is my bottom and has expanded. The human wonders if I have growing pains because it seems I grow almost literally over night, some days. I sometimes find myself wondering if this must be what it felt like for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when they metamorphosed. Those guys are cool! Anyway. As I was saying. I’m growing really fast and my human is amazed. I’m so healthy and cute! Or that’s what she tells me anyway. I’m not all too familiar with the term except that she uses it for me and the cats and the dog all the time. It must be something nice because she uses a really high pitched voice and makes sure we all hear her well enough to understand that she is caring about us. Otherwise, it’s just so super cool having a shell. It helps me swim and keeps me safe from myself when I accidentally fall off my rock. That is a long fall. It is so weird because, someday, I will actually be bigger than that rock! I think probably the neatest part about being a turtle is definitely my turtle shell. It is so amazingly constructed and protective and decorative and - well, neat. In some cultures, turtle shells are considered a divine source of wisdom. There are several accounts in some Native American symbolism where the turtle itself represents the earth and the heavens. The plastron representing the heavens - round and leading upward as a mountain to the heavens. The plastron representing the flat of the earth (before we discovered the earth was round, of course). These accounts serve a purpose in their cultures and I am grateful for the adoration which offers me as a living, breathing representation of life to our mother earth. Just another reason it’s so good to be a turtle!