Slow and Steady, Slow and Steady

So we have this turtle named "Reach". I adopted him many years ago when a student of mine went off to college and need a home for her pet turtle that was as old as her. I had a large biology classroom at the time, and would take in fish, hedgehogs, small rodents, plants, etc. partly in an effort to fill up the room with living examples of our topic de jour, but also partly because I had a hard time saying no to something that needed a home.

Reach lived in a 65 gallon tank his whole life, and when I received him he came with the tank and his "play things", a glass fish and plastic dinosaur he seemed to enjoy moving around the tank. I would bring Reach home in the Summers, and then back to the classroom in the Fall, and when I finally stopped teaching, Reach and his tank were tucked up against a wall in the playroom of our old Seattle home.

When we bought the farm out here on Vashon, we decided that Reach could use a change of scenery. Instead of moving him and his tank, we just moved him to the pond in front of the farmhouse. We figured that he had lived a long enough life (we figure he is almost 30 years old) in a tank, and either he could retire happily in the pond, or just "retire" if he could not survive on his own and that would be alright as well. Time passed and every once in a while we would see Reach hanging out in the bottom of the pond with the few resident goldfish swimming overhead. Then we stopped seeing him in August, and wrote it off to either a Raccoon that we knew was visiting the pond, or to the over-grown lily pads that provided lots of hiding places.

So this morning we received quite the surprise when our neighbor down below our two-acre farm, came up the long drive to see if I wanted a new pet. I immediately told her we were quite full up with cats, dogs, and chickens, and we could not take any livestock until at least the Spring. She smiled and said, "This pet is perfect, I think it could even just live in your pond!" I immediately asked her if it was a turtle, to which she gave me a shocked look and asked me how did I guess? I told her that we "had" a turtle many months ago, but were pretty sure he was dead. Besides, this turtle she found trying to cross the busy road at the bottom of our driveway in a downpour yesterday afternoon. Could it be that Reach went on a three-month tour of the farm, and was still alive? As soon as we peered into the empty bathtub at the neighbor's home it was obvious that Reach was still with us, and as soon as I picked him up he game me an appropriate hiss and tucked into his shell. We returned him to the pond, did a big three cheers for the traveler, and left him to his own devices.

Reach's big adventure through our farm, the neighbors' properties, and dodging traffic fit so perfectly into how I have been feeling this week. We just witnessed the first black man being elected in our country, and all around me I see stunned and happy faces. It has been a long slog for so many before us to abolish slavery, fight for the right to vote, march for civil rights, and struggle for equal opportunities. Sometimes those struggles got stretched out so much that the daily efforts went unnoticed. People wake up every morning and decide to fight the good fight, knowing that they may never reap the rewards for themselves. And then one day the seas part, we summit a mountain, we feel the sun on our face, and know that today is different. We have elected a new man to be "boss" of our country, as my kids put it, yet they struggle to see how he is different. They think he is a great person because they hear how excited I am, they see me tear up when I hear him speak, they feel like they won, because he is the one we voted for. They are still young enough that they truly take each day as it comes. They were happy yesterday because Barack Obama was elected our new president, and they are happy today because we found Reach.

Thank you to all those that have gone before us to pave the way for peace and change. Thank you to our children who welcome each day as it comes. And thanks to Reach, who shows us that all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other, and although you may not get very noticed in your day to day slog, you still can go far!

I wonder were Reach will take us next?