I dashed down the steps and across the miry lawn, mud squishing between my toes and scooped the shiny, black-shelled, turtle up and carried her to our tiny concrete pad, at the base of the steps. I called the children to the backyard to admire her and they quickly fetched lettuce from our garden and the discarded, plastic base of an old guinea pig cage that was filled with rain water. The turtle paddled contentedly around and ate the proffered lettuce from my children's hand.
She was a red-eared slider who must have either emerged late from a dark, dank, corner of our fence or had mistaken our yard for a pond. An easy mistake to make, considering the standing water. Podunk's seen rain this year. Oh, how it's rained! It feels as though we've bailed instead of mowed this Spring. Either way she was now a guest of my children, who were determined she wouldn't leave hungry!
The children eagerly fetched more romaine and fed her from my dried meal worm stash the rest of the afternoon. They chased her around the yard and declared her the fastest turtle they had ever seen and waited impatiently for daddy to come home to see their prize.
Every part of this moment felt so very "Mayberry" and I watched it all unfold from my back stoop. The contentment that I felt at that moment, as I surveyed my burgeoning homestead made me quickly offer up a prayer of thanks for everything that I had but never knew I wanted. At that moment, my life was exactly what I wanted it be, so very Mayberry and exactly how I never imagined.
Peace Out!
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