What can we do? Step to the side. Give her the right-of-way. Kneel.

~ Live & Learn

Has anyone been face-to-face with evolution? The other day I was eye-to-eye with a Galápagos tortoise that had spent three months walking from the top of the volcano down to the sea to lay her eggs at night on the island of Isabela. In the slow, deliberate nature of her world, she upholds twelve million years of perfection. Beauty is the origin of wonder. What enables her to live eighteen months without food or water? Does a fast predicated by drought or famine become spiritual? What can we do for the tortoise? Step to the side. Give her the right-of-way. Kneel.

~ Terry Tempest Williams, Erosion: Essays of Undoing (Sarah Crichton Books, October 8, 2019)

Notes:

  • Inspiration? I’m searching for my next book. I can’t find it. For some reason I’m drawn to this book. I engage. I’m tempted to drop it, but something keeps pulling me forward. 1/3 of the way in. I wouldn’t recommend it to my friends (yet). But there is something in these essays that won’t let me go. A Teacher teaching, interspersed with meditations, that makes it more important than anything that I’ve read in years. Onward.  Let’s see what’s ahead.
  • Photo: Giant tortoise on Pinzon Island, Galapagos. Rory Stansbury, Island Conservation/Flickr

30 thoughts on “What can we do? Step to the side. Give her the right-of-way. Kneel.”

  14. One of our neighbours has a tortoise. It came with the house. And the owners before them who sold them the house, had it coming with the house too……. Plus they are away very often and for longer periods. The tortoise just goes on about her/his business. A few shady/covered/quiet places, some turned-over flower pots, and all is well. Admirable and unusual – a miracle of Mother Nature.

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