Lucky Turtle

Looking out my kitchen window towards the creek.

In the center of the window ledge is a little turtle carved from Catlinite, a mineral found in Minnesota and South Dakota, also known as pipestone because it's used by Native Americans to make sacred pipes.

This little turtle sat on the front console of my car all the way from the Mississippi Gulf Coast to Portland, Oregon.

The last time I was in Bay St. Louis, right before I left in November, a friend of mine who is one-half Native American gave me the turtle as a going-away present. Her house was completely demolished by Hurricane Katrina. It appears that her neighborhood was first flattened by a tornado, and then the 35-foot-deep storm surge (flood) came through and washed away what remained of the houses after the tornado.  Her refrigerator and mailbox were found several blocks away. Part of what appeared to have been her kitchen was piled up at the back of her lot.

My friend went back numerous times, combing the debris to see if she could find certain items that belonged to her deceased parents, without much luck. One day, she lifted a two-by-four and this little fellow was underneath. Except for some scratch marks across his back, he was unscathed.

Comments

[alwaysdare]

That turtle looks really cool.

It's funny though when you think about the little things.

I remember a story when I was a kid and it was about a 1 dollar bill. If that dollar bill could talk, it could tell us all the places it had been and all the interesting things it had seen.

Like that turtle, it no doubt has seen some interesting things.

I guess all things, both living and non-living have a story to tell.

[Kitty]

Hi, alwaysdare, it's good to hear from you. And indeed they do. I've often wondered what things my cats could tell me about, if they could talk.