Old Turtle
A Story By
Douglas Wood
Watercolors by Cheng-Khee Chee
Once a long time ago.......
yet somehow, not so very long ago....
when all the animals
and rocks
and winds and waters
and trees
and birds
and fish
and all the beings of the world
could speak....
and understand one another......
There began.......AN ARGUMENT
It began softly at first...
Quiet as the first breeze that whispered,
"He is the wind who is never still."
Quiet as the stone answered,
"He is a great rock that never moves."
Gentle as the mountain that rumbled,
"God is a snowy peak, high above the clouds."
And the fish in the ocean answered, "God is a
swimmer, in the dark blue depths of the sea."
"No," said the star,
"God is a twinkling
and a shining,
far, far away."
"No," replied the ant,
"God is a sound
and a smell and a feeling,
who is very, very close."
"God," said the antelope,
"is a runner, swift and free,
who loves to leap
and race with the wind."
"She is a great tree."
murmured the willow,
"a part of the world,
always growing
and always giving."
"God is like a shining sun,
far above all things,"
said the blue sky.
"No, He is a river,
who flows through the very
heart of things,"
thundered the waterfall.
"She is a hunter," roared the lion.
"God is gentle," chirped the robin.
"He is powerful, growled the bear.
And the argument
grew LOUDER
and LOUDER
and LOUDER
until...............
STOP!
A new voice spoke.
It rumbled loudly, like thunder.
And it whispered softly, like beautiful butterfly sneezes.
The voice seemed to come from.........
why it seemed to come from........
....Old Turtle!
Now Old Turtle hardly ever said anything,
and certainly never argued about things like God.
But now Old Turtle began to speak.
"God is indeed deep."
she said to the fish of the sea;
"and much higher than high,"
she told the mountains.
"He is swift and free as the wind,
and still and solid as a great rock,"
she said to the breezes and stones.
"She is the life of the world,"
Turtle said to the willow.
"Always close by, yet beyond
the farthest twinkling light,"
she told the ant and the star.
"God is gentle and powerful.
Above all things
and within all things."
"God is all that we dream of,
and all that we seek,"
said Old Turtle,
"all that we come from
and all that we can find"
"God IS."
Old Turtle had never said so much before.
All the beings of the world were surprised,
and became very quiet.
But Old Turtle had one more thing to say.
"There will soon be
a new family of beings in the world," she said,
"and they will all be strange and wonderful."
"They will be reminders of all that God is."
"They will come in many colors and shapes,
with different faces
and different ways of speaking."
"Their thoughts will soar to the stars,
but their feet will walk the earth."
"They will possess many powers.
They will be strong, yet tender,
a message of love from God to earth,
and a prayer from the earth back to God."
And the people came.
But the people forgot.
They forgot that they were
a message of love,
and a prayer from the earth.
And they began to argue...
about who knew God,
and who did not;
and where God was,
and was not;
and whether God was,
or was not.
And often the people
misused their powers,
and hurt one another.
Or killed one another.
And they hurt the earth.
Until finally even the forests
began to die.......
.....and the rivers
and the oceans
and the plants and the animals
and the earth itself.....
Because the people could not
remember who they were,
or where God was.
Until one day there came a voice,
like the growling of thunder,
but as softly as butterfly sneezes.
Please STOP.
The voice seemed to come from
the mountains who rumbled,
"Sometimes I see God
swimming, in the dark blue sea."
And from the ocean who sighed,
"He is often among the
snow-capped peaks,
reflecting the sun."
From the stone who said,
"I sometimes feel her breath,
as she blows by."
And from the breeze
who whispered, "I feel
his still presence as I
dance among the rocks."
And the star said,
"God is very close,"
and the island said,
"His love touches everything."
And after a long,
lonesome and scary time.....
...the people listened,
and began to hear......
And to see God in one another......
...and in the beauty of all the Earth,
And Old Turtle SMILED.
And so did God.
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Old Turtle Story
