Old Turtle and the Broken Truth

Sometimes children's books are meant to be read by us adults, don't you think so? We must keep that little child in us always.

I remember reading "OLD TURTLE & THE BROKEN TRUTH" about a year ago. It's a very nice book written by Douglas Wood. It's got nice watercolor illustrations in it. I got it from a book sale. It is a book that speaks of spiritual journey -- yours and mine. It's about finding your way back home and on being whole again.

Wood, the author wrote a dedication on the third page of the book and it says "To all who seek truth and who listen to the language of breezes. (And Turtles.)

A soul brother told me once that "books find you", not the other way around. Perhaps, Old Turtle & the Broken Truth did find me.

Let me share with you a few precious quoted excerpts from the book (the conversation between the Little Girl & the Old Turtle) :

"Why have you come so far to find me, Little one?" asked the Old Turtle. Her voice rumbled like far away thunder, but was soft as the breeze through a caterpillar's whiskers.

"I... wanted to ask a question," answered the Little Girl. "Where I live , the earth is sore, and people are suffering. Battles are fought, over and over again. People say, it has been this way and will never change. Can it change, Old Turtle? Can we make it change?"

Old Turtle spoke. "The world you describe is not the world that has always been, Little One."
Then the Old Turtle told of how people had found the broken truth, and the suffering it had caused.

"It is because it is so close to a great, whole truth that it has such beauty, and that the people love it so," said Old Turtle. "It is the lost portion of that broken truth that the people need, if the world is to be made whole again."

"But where is the missing piece?' asked the Little Girl. "Can we put the truth back together again?"

"First my child," said Old Turtle, "remember that there are truths all around us, and within us. They twinkle in the night and bloom upon the earth. They fall on us every day, silent as the snow and gentle as the rain. The people, clutching their one truth, forget that it is a part of all small and lovely truths of life. They no longer see these truths, no longer hear them.

"But.... perhaps, Little One, you can...."

"I --- I'll try," said the Little Girl.

And she thought once more of her long journey. She looked upon all the beauty that surrounded her, from the far hill to the flowers beneath her feet. She saw the movement of clouds and the soaring of birds and the dancing of light upon the green and living earth. She heard the whispering of the breeze.

And gradually... a feeling came over her as though all the world were made of truths. As if the world had just been made for her and she had been made for it. And she felt a secret smile somewhere deep inside... and thought that, perhaps, she understood.

She looked once again at Old Turtle, her eyes more filled with wonder than before.

Old Turtle spoke again. "Remember this also, Little One," he said. "The Broken Truth, and life itself, will be mended only when one person meets another --- someone from a different place or with a different face or different ways --- and sees and hears . . . herself. Only then will the people know that every person, every being, is important, and that the world was made for each of us."

For a long time then the two friends were quiet, high on the hill in the very center of the world. And in her heart the Little Girl thought she could see other people in other beautiful lands, people with their own ways, their own truths . . . people different from her own, but still, somehow, The People.

Finally the Little Girl asked one more question. "Old Turtle, how will the people learn these things?"

"By seeking out those small and simple truths all around them." said Old Turtle. "By listening once more to the language of breezes, by learning lessons from stones and animals and trees and stars. Even turtles," she chuckled, and "little girls."

"Now Little One, it is time for you to go, to return to your people and tell them what you have seen and learned, and to help them mend their Broken Truth."

"Take this with you," said Old Turtle, as he placed something in the Little Girl's hand. "I have saved it for a very long time, for someone just like you."

The Little Girl looked at what the Old Turtle had given her. It was kind of stone, a mysterious, beautiful stone. It was lovely to touch, and it made her feel good to hold it.

She squeezed it tightly, then tucked it away, for her journey.

Thank you, Old Turtle," she said, and hugged her friend's great leathery neck.

And then she started home....

That story did not end there. The Little Girl traveled a long journey towards home. It says there in the last few lines of the story, "But it had been a long journey and those who take great journeys of the heart are changed." So do not be discouraged, we are all parts of that Broken Truth, truths hidden somewhere within us --- our hearts, we just have to rediscover it and put all the missing pieces together and become whole again. I hope books like OLD TURTLE & THE BROKEN TRUTH will find its way to you.

"And slowly, as the people met other people different from themselves, they began to see themselves."

"Remember when you read this book. Remember this paragraph, remember this concept... This may exactly what the person you are giving a reading to needs to know at this point."