Sea Turtle, Part V

V

I cried and cried, feeling small.
I hugged the squid, even
brushed against her fearful beak
as she let me climb into
her warmth.

When I had exhausted myself,
she let me sleep.
I woke in her cave with air to breath
and grass to eat.

I ... I ... am ashamed, I said to her.
Why? She growled.
We live to learn. You are learning.
I was quiet awhile.
I want to be with her, I said at last.
Ah, she growled.
A moment passed, maybe 2.
How do you know you share her path?

What?! I started.
What do you mean?

Do you think she just stopped, her
path ended?
Unable to speak, I nodded.
I had not thought about it in that way.
I knew only the emptiness of her absence.
And so, stilling my heart,
I let my mind remember.

She felt near at first, I said,
as though I could reach out and
touch her if I could reach high enough
into the stars.
Mmm Hmmm, she purred.

And sometimes I felt her swimming
next to me. I would turn my
head or stop and turn around,
but she was not there.
Hmmm Mmm, she growled softly.

I dreamt of her every night.
I looked at her.
Mmmmmm, she murmured,
looking back at me.

But I dreamed of her less often
as time passed, and she ...
I stammered, she ...
She felt farther away.

I still cry, but not as often,
not everyday.
Then, as my heart flooded and,
refusing to remain still,
overflowed, I choked back tears.
Sometimes, I confessed,
seasons pass and I do not cry.

I wept then.
Little one, she said,
It is as it is meant to be.
It is that way for all of us.

I looked at her.
I felt her warmth and the
warmth of others around us.
Your mother had a path here, and
she has a path there.
You have a different path, but
you are never far from her, or
her from you.
All life is energy, even after death.
We simply take different forms.

She gestured at 8 different things,
in 8 different directions,
as squid and octopi do.

We are all of us really only
one thing: Life.
Death is a passing,
a letting go of life in this form
and passing to the next life in another.

Open your mind and see.