The wise old turtle women

Every Sunday morning I ride the boundary fence line around the property.  There’s a lake located  near the aboriginal homestead on one corner of our property. Each time I ride by this lake, I see the same old woman sitting at the water’s edge with a small metal cage sitting beside her.

This past Sunday my curiosity got the better of me, so I stopped riding and walked over to her.  As I got closer, I realized that the metal cage was in fact, a small trap.  There were three turtles, unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap.  She had a fourth turtle in her lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a sponge type a brush.

“G'day,” I said.  “I see you here just about every Sunday morning.  If you don’t mind me asking, " I’d like to know what you’re doing with those turtles.”

She smiled.  “I’m cleaning off their shells,” she replied.  “Anything on a turtle’s shell, like algae or scum, reduces the turtle’s ability to absorb heat and makes it harder for it to swim.  It can also rot and weaken the shell over time.”

“Well!  That’s mighty good of you!” I exclaimed.

She went on: “I spend a couple of hours each Sunday morning, relaxing by this lake and helping them little fella's out.  It’s my own strange way of making a difference.”

“But don’t most freshwater turtles live their whole lives with algae and scum hanging from their shells?” I asked.

“Yes, sadly, they do,” she replied.

I scratched my head.  “Well then, don’t you think your time could be better spent?  I mean, I think your efforts are kind and all that, but there are fresh water turtles living in lakes all around the world.  And 99% of these turtles don’t have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells.  So, no offense… but how exactly are your localized efforts here truly making a difference?”

The old woman giggled aloud.  She then looked down at the turtle in her lap, scrubbed off the last piece of algae from its shell, and said, “Mate, if this little fella could talk, he’d tell you I just made all the difference in the world.”

The moral:  You can change the world – maybe not all at once, but one person, one animal, and one good deed at a time.  Wake up every morning and pretend like what you do makes a difference