About a month ago I was out taking my morning walk and found THIS guy on my neighbor’s lawn:

Of course, I was on the phone talking to Mary Ann, and when I texted her a pic of this little mystery turtle she said “Can we keep it, we can name him Turbo?”

I can’t tell her no.

And thus, after a few years of ZERO pets I suddenly had an animal to care for, yet again.

Initially I thought little Turbo was a Painted Turtle, but some YouTube research revealed that he’s a juvenile Eastern River Cooter, almost 98% aquatic!

So I set THIS up:

Ten years ago I used to have a big 120 gallon freshwater fishtank in my living room, and when that tank developed an apocalyptic leak I gave my fish back to the local pet store and gave up the hobby.

In the last few weeks I got tremendous joy from setting up this tank, learning about aquatic turtles on YouTube and just watching Turbo interact with the other critters in his tank.

Last week we got some torrential rain that filled the firepit in my backyard, and a few days later I saw frog eggs in the water. I relocated the frog eggs to a bucket, then watched them hatch into tadpoles. Yesterday I poured the bucket of tadpoles into Turbo’s tank and he started eating them!

I’ve been giving Turbo turtle pellets from the pet store, but he likes hunting for his dinner as well!

He also eats pond moss and duckweed, seen here:

In the events of the last few weeks I’ve drawn comfort from sitting on my back porch and watching Turbo’s (occasionally peaceful) aquarium.

Maybe I needed something / someone to look after these last few weeks.

Mary Ann is still waiting for her final interview at the embassy in Manila, after which she can come here with her twins.

It’s a lonely wait for me. Mary Ann has her girls to care for, and I have my daughters, but they don’t need me on a daily basis, not anymore.

But Turbo does, right? I gotta feed him, make sure his water filters are working, do water changes daily, clean the tank glass so his home stays pretty…

This is such a weird fucking summer; the drowning death of precious little Apollo Price, waiting for Mary Ann, watching Trump get shot on national TV, going to Ybor and doing Christian outreach… and then there is this little turtle I gotta take care of.

I feel like God is very PRESENT in my life right now, adjusting the cogs & gears of my heart in unexpected ways, shifting the tectonic plates of my inner geography…

It’s not about the turtle, or the Filipina and her twins, or a beautiful baby who tragically drowns… it’s not even about praying with folks in Ybor, or the wider presidential election, but about all those things all at once, and how they all tie together.

I wonder how I’ll look back at this summer of 2024, a summer of tragic things and beautiful things and unexpected things. A summer of sorrow and tears, but also of wonder.

I wonder if it will all make sense a year from now.

I hope everyone out there is OK.

God loves all of you.

Ben Alexander

July 20th 2024.