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Memorial Day Monday I honored the men and women who served our country by doing some brush control on the vacant lot I own next to my house in the Ozarks.
In preparation for planting a cherry tree and peach tree, which I did on Sunday, I cut down a couple of small trees a month ago and trimmed a bunch of branches from other trees and then piled them up to dry out so I could cut them into smaller pieces to use for starting fires in my firepit.
I piled the smaller trees and the branches near the house so I could easily access them when it came time to cut and as I was working on my pile, I grabbed a branch and lo and behold there was a box turtle laying there, just chillin’ in the shade.
I was a bit surprised though I shouldn’t have been. This was the fifth turtle I’ve seen near my house in the past four days. There’s a stream nearby and apparently, that’s where they head to lay their eggs. I’m not a turtle expert so I’ll take my neighbor’s word since he’s an Ozark native and I’m more of a Calazarkian (I moved from California two years ago).
After I picked up the branch in question, the turtle popped its head in the shell for a moment and then, realizing there was no imminent danger, popped it back out and continued to sit in the dirt, relaxing as if it didn’t have a care in the world.
For the next ninety minutes, I continued sawing away and moving the smaller pieces to a box closer to the fire pit, yet my turtle homie just stayed there, not being bothered by anything I was doing. During that time, the turtle probably moved all of six inches and I think that was just to get away from the sawdust and dried cedar leaves that were falling on and around it.
With nothing better to do that day I went back outside several times to see if my new friend was still there. It wasn’t exactly in the same spot, but it was nearby, slowly moving toward the stream.
I wondered if it was a female turtle going to lay eggs or a male turtle going to try and pick up a female turtle who had just laid her eggs. That’s something I’m still pondering.
The lesson I learned is this. It doesn’t matter what kind of noise is going on around us and it doesn’t matter if someone suddenly pops into our lives and disrupts the peace. We can still be chill and relaxed, or as I like to say, chillaxed.
Being on the autism spectrum, chillaxing is something that happens way too little in my life and something I’m in desperate need of on a regular basis. My panic attacks can be legendary and watching this turtle today somehow made me feel a little Zen and like life was truly ok.
The last time I went outside to check on my turtle buddy it was about five feet from the street and not wanting it to get run over, I picked it up and carried it to a spot about twenty feet from the stream.
I figured that if I took it any closer, the other turtles might get jealous that this one got a ride and in case it was a male trying to pick up females, I didn’t want him losing any street cred, or whatever kind of cred wild box turtles have.
But seriously, do you have trouble chillaxing or even relaxing when life’s noise gets in the way? If you do, how do you handle it? Do you have a strategy for dealing with the things life throws at you or do you just wing it and try to pull back in your shell until the storm has passed?
Share your stories of triumph and tragedy with us. We want to hear them. I know I do.
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Photo courtesy J.R. Reed.
