Advent, The Solstice, and Turtles

                               All Creation Waits -- David Klein illustration 

 As we entered December we made decision about a few more donations and causes doing excellent work in our community and abroad. I hesitate to call them charities because of the connotation of benevolence for what is vitally important, not on the periphery of our giving. 

In the mix we included two projects which are dedicated to turtles, those remarkable relics of the age of dinosaurs which are under threat in Ontario. I've long been fascinated by turtles and Ruth will tell you that I brake for turtles and during the late Spring and early Summer you might find me at the side of the road, assisting one out of harm's way. A couple of years ago I was involved in a somewhat bizarre rescue on busy Highway 2 in Belleville. I stopped traffic while a cheerful passerby who looked as though he'd had a rough life picked up the reptile and carried it to the Bay of Quinte. 

                                                       Turtle Rescuer

This year we've kayaked and canoed a lot -- nearly 50 times in total -- and we saw many turtles, including some snappers who were real lunkers. Even though almost all Ontario turtle species are under threat, we saw lots of them, and were grateful. 

I've written about a lovely Advent book called All Creation Waits with text by Gayle Boss and illustrations by David Klein. I hadn't really noticed until this year that the first day features the painted turtle. Boss writes of the "radical simplicity of the hibernation of turtles and the promise that the world will warm again and life will resume.

Those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere wonder if this true every year, and 2020, with its quarantines and lock-downs has been a bit of a nightmare. Advent does remind us that God hasn't abandoned us, and that Christmas, a holiday borrowed from cultures which observed the Solstice as a holy day, offers us our own promise of the birth of Christ.