Tortoise

The Tortoise requested to sit in the center
  of my alter, posed to see in all four directions.
  She can gaze down any path, but focuses on me.

She invites me into contemplation, to learn.
  With her great, slow strokes, she flies to the stars.
  I look upon her face and see eternity shining in her eyes.

Then, we are under water, her stroke unbroken.
  Her eyes wide, protected by a translucent sheath.
  In the dark, she sees clearly, swims steadily forward.

Again we are in the universe, gliding now around the moon,
  surfing on a planetary wave, catching the crest of the earth's gravity.
  Rounding the earth, the gravity unleashes its tether, hurtling us to the sun.

Into the sun's core we plunge, flesh incinerated, Spirit released.
  Cleansed, we linger in the calm, peace, wonder, of oneness with the All.
  In the stillness, the Ancients appear with a lazer of light to etch upon her shell.

They inscribe upon her back the wisdom of the ages,
  and send her forth to share the gift with all of humanity.
  To all corners of the earth, all of life, she carries the message.

She rests beneath still waters to glimpse the inscriptions
  in a reflection, and then swims on, for she is the messenger.
  She can not see, but fully comprehends, the wisdom she carries.

'Your life is a message,' Tortoise counsels me.
  'Allow the ancient wisdom to be inscribed upon you.
  'Let it emerge from your soul, then carry it for all to see.'

Like the Tortoise, we each have wisdom of the ages
  etched deeply upon our souls, visible to our mind's eye, 
  a universal code of love to guide our walk through this life.

We need only to become quiet, to look within, to trust
  that the wisdom resides within each of us, that the wisdom 
  is our heritage, our connection to All, the ultimate and eternal gift.