Life and Baby Turtles

As the long winter claims me I recognize that certain forms of  depression are a malady of soul. When the soul has come to a point in its scripted life that no longer offers breadth and depth for the housing of spirit, we diminish our aliveness. Our perception forms reality, and unless we are able to overcome the outward dictates of who we are based on the sum total of our past experiences and expectations, we become like baby turtles trapped in their embryonic shells.

Deep within each of us is a knowing of our origin and destiny, and as we are seduced by the world of appearances, we lose connection to our inner coding. Depression may enter as a reminder to reconnect with the larger possibility of our life.

It is here that I see us like baby turtles who are housed in the protective environment of the birth shell (an egg) until they are strong enough to emerge into the larger world. The mother turtle comes from the sea to lay her eggs and covers them in the moist sand where they incubate. At the time of hatching, the baby turtles must push with all their might against the confinement of the shell that incubated them in growth, for they must now go out into the larger world to fulfill their purpose. If the turtle perceives the embryonic shell to be the universe, it will perish within that context…never having experienced the larger possibility awaiting it.

So, we too, come to points in our lives that act as the membrane of protection. There are times to move forward, times to risk. Yet we are afraid. We don’t know to what or for what this inner calling comes because we have lost the instinctive knowing of  the turtle. We are concerned with the outer world and the outcome of our actions.

Once long ago I received an insight. Stated quite succinctly, I was told, “You are not here to be safe!”

The baby turtles face quite an ordeal as they emerge from the shell into the bright light and then with all the strength gathered must make their way to the sea through a maze of predators who await them. However, even in the face of great uncertainty, they go, for staying in the shell is certain death.

For us, depression may be a signal from psyche that the old shell must be broken because it has become a constriction, and that through our willingness to move forward, life may emerge in a larger context, regardless of its outcome.

copyright 1996