I found Myrtle and had an epiphany

If you've been following my twitter and FB feeds, you know that we named the turtle that suddenly appeared in our turtle sanctuary Myrtle the Mystery Turtle. You'll also know that she just as mysteriously disappeared. Well today she reappeared! Yay! You can just barely see her in today's photo. It seems Myrtle was just fine, deep in the mud and safely hidden from the outside world, breathing easy, and coming up for a walk once the mud started drying around her. No worries. And here I thought a chicken hawk had gotten her. Or the rats had.

So what was she doing down there anyway? Hiding? Thinking? Laying eggs?

As writers sometimes we must submerge ourselves in the darkness, or hide away to ruminate or plan or just plain recharge. There's really nothing wrong with this. It's natural. Contrary to the "dig your own hole" analogy, Myrtle was just fine the whole time she was under the mud. I was the one worried about her. She knew what she was doing the whole time. So I guess the ephinany I got from this experience is this: Trust your inner turtle.

Dig where you need to dig. Ruminate when you need to make a choice. Hybernate on a plot point until it makes sense. Come up out of the mud when you need a bit of Vit D or fresh air or just sunlight for sunlight's sake. Somebody is bound to be waiting with berries and a flush of water to wash off that dirt. Your biggest fan, no doubt.  --A. H.