Poetry Friday: Turtle Medicine

Happy Poetry Friday! We made it through the one last full week of winter. That is worth celebrating! Lets have a poem for dessert since we made it, shall we?

On vacation I bought myself a small carved turtle figure, a personal reminder of the life choices I was making and the lessons I keep being reminded of right now.

In Native American teaching, animals can be instructors and messengers sent to teach us things for a while or coming alongside us as tangible reminders of our identity and role in life. I have been learning turtle lessons for a while now and feel like God sends me turtle encounters as gentle nudges of His Presence and my own strengths and callings.

So today, a little turtle poetry...

Turtle Medicine
I am a turtle woman.
Placid rover, called to grounding
Needing slower paced out stalking
Hearer of the ancient wisdom
Trees and rocks and river talking
Drawn by God through paths of effort
Dredging through the channel blocking
Peace within, a well of comfort
Holy salve where fear is knocking
Long-lived being made for always
Eternal creature never stopping
Bearer of the world around me
Pillar-legged never balking
Wearer of my home and haven
Belonging present at each docking
Tortoise, Hawksbill, Slider, Terrapin
Loggerhead, Box and Painted teachers.
God's cold-blooded, scaly speakers
I am turtle woman listening.

You can click through and read more of my poems where I am slowly collecting them, on my Original Verse page. 

Tune in for the rest of this week's participants and see what other poems are out, waiting to speak to you. Our esteemed host for the collection this time around is Kara Newhouse, over at her blog Rogue Anthropologist. I always think a nice dose of poetry browsing is a fantastic way to celebrate a slower weekend morning. May you enjoy the same....

Can't Get Enough Benedictus!

A couple of times a week I am in the car driving and the boys are listening to endless loops of Little House on the Prairie on cd and I feel like the chauffeur. This is when I put in my headphones and push play on my iPhone's Divine Office app. I know this sounds totally canned but it's true. I drive down the highway and listen to/pray through morning prayer complete with cathedral bell sounds and a meditation chime at the appropriate spots, sometimes even a little chant for my listening pleasure. For those who don't know, this is an ancient Catholic ritual something like the Muslim's morning call to prayer a cyclical, rhythmic spiritual pattern. It calms me, it makes me feel less used and lonely and it gives me a tiny spot of reflection and peace and on the highway no less!



My favorite part lately that I can't seem to get out of my head comes at the very end, it's called The Benedictus, the final blessing, the part that really reverberates for me is this last stanza:

Image via Wikipedia

"In the tender compassion of our God,  the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Image via Wikipedia

Isn't that gorgeous? I may have to paint it on a canvas or inscribe it on one of the walls in our house.  I think only way it would be better is if it was prayed over me as the sun rose, in the door of a candlelit cathedral or on a cliff over the sea.

Related articles

• The Divine Office (Praying the Psalms) (monasteryoblates.wordpress.com)
• 40 Reasons Why It's Cool to be a Catholic #31 The Liturgy of the Hours (deaconcast.com)
• Tech Talk: 13 Essential Catholic Apps (catholicmom.com)
• The Divine Office (thecatholicthing.org)
• Early Morning Prayer to the Sun (prophet666.com)

Tiny Bouquet

I have been thinking Lenten thoughts, going over ways to add penance, giving and prayer to my life in more ways and one of the ways I've been working on is a silent walking time first thing in the morning. Time to pray, listen, be still, hear and just generally not be online or on my phone or carrying on two or three conversations at once with the boys. I've been enjoying it a lot and am starting to wind my walk down with a little poking around type browse around my own yard to see where spring is showing up and what little touches of new life I see. This week, I saw that my Lenten Rose is blooming! It was just an unlabeled, cheap grocery store potted variety that I put in the ground after it finished blooming for me indoors last year.

I so hoped it would take, a Lenten Rose has been on my gardeny wishlist for a long time and lucky, lucky me...I got one for a pittance at my local grocery! I think I bought a mixed pot of several different cream, pink and burgundy shades and it looks like only the dark wine color has managed to set itself firmly into the soil. Still amazing to me that even when we are getting temperatures in the 30's and sometimes even 20's this brave little flower does its thing, undeterred. I have noticed that there are still several upcoming buds so I took to liberty of bringing one indoors to enjoy in a bottle. What a treat to have a small bouquet from my own garden in February!

Related articles

• Lenten Journey (terri0729.wordpress.com)
• Hella-What?????? (thegardendiaries.wordpress.com)
• Lenten Practice (nationalavenuecc.com)