Yesterday a little critter turned up in our garden from nowhere. It was sat very comfortably on one of the paths. Was this tortoise – or more correctly box turtle – an escapee from another garden. Somebody’s pet perhaps? That’s what we thought so we put it in a box and placed a photograph of it on our local Facebook community page wondering if anyone would claim it. The response was that similar specimens had landed near other houses.
No one stepped forwards to retrieve our errant tortoise. We then received a comment from a person in the know telling us that this charming fellow was in fact nobody’s pet but a wild creature which, like the deer, foxes, pine martens and boars that wander around our place, should be left well alone to fend for itself since any interference would lead to undesirable results – unnatural ones in fact. So, after a day in the box feeding on our veg and bread, we let the turtle out to return to its own life among the woods and bushes surrounding our place. Luckily we hadn’t yet given the animal a name so the parting wasn’t too painful.
However, later that same day we experience a parting which was quite otherwise. We received a message stating that a friend of ours had died earlier that same morning. After a successful operation at Pisa’s Cisanello hospital she had succumbed to a heart attack which, in her weakened state, ended her mortal existence. Wendy was a Buddhist – indeed she wrote to me – ‘I don’t want a service. I am a Buddhist. Just want to be cremated and my ashes scattered in the wind to be blown away.’
(Above photo from left to right, Sandra, Me and Wendy with her dachshund Margot last month)
Wendy’s wishes will be fully carried out by her son. And she has gone beyond this world with a copy of Buddha’s sayings which another friend considerately placed in her coffin.
The appearance of a turtle in our garden and the disappearance of a treasured friend on the same day? Was there any coincidence in these events?
My wife reminded me of the association between turtles and Buddhism. Many Buddhist temples have tablet turtle monuments that commemorate a monk’s life. When considering Buddhism, Buddhist monks and their temples, it’s inspiring to reflect on images of turtles and read the writing on their monuments. For Buddhists the turtle stands as a prayer, a wish and hope that life’s meaning will be revealed to the departed one.
Adding a tortoise to a memorial serves to emphasize the goodness of the dead person. Regarded in Chinese cultures practising Buddhism as an auspicious creature symbolizing long life (some examples have been known to live over one hundred years), the turtle conveys the message that the departed one was a virtuous person whose spirit will live forever. Moreover, turtles are truly powerful beings that can carry heavy loads. Indeed an ancient Eastern myth relates that a giant turtle called Ao supports our planet on its back.
Today we have completed reading a book aloud to each other. It’s by that brilliant writer on plants and their curative power, Marco Pardini, and is titled ‘La Casa delle Parole Ritrovate’ (The house of rediscovered words). An intriguing story interweaving a contemporary love story with the discovery of a seventeenth century manuscript describing another tale of love, this time set against a background of plague and the Inquisition Pardini’s first novel ends with a sentence expressing the thought that no death can ever truly be considered a final event.
We, too, believe this.