Calling Back the Medicine

Debra Roberts, BeeLoved bee lover who launched The Sacred Path of Bee series, invited her students to recall a moment where they Called Back the Medicine, as her grandmother called the process of pulling in Wisdom.  This is my story.

I was sitting on the edge of a pond at a botanical garden somewhere near Norfolk, Virginia.  I had gone to Virginia as a young, indecisive college student, who thought I knew everything, yet wanted to explore places I hadn’t been.  Yes, an oxymoron already, though I didn’t realize it at the time!

I was gazing out at the pond, amazed at how stuck I was in my life.  I moved to Virginia and did not like the college, my experiences, and did not seem to connect to anyone.  I was even finding that my energy was so low that I was disappearing, but that is a different story, so I will leave that for another time.

Woe is me, I thought as I looked at the ripples in the pond, the circles expanding out from a center point in front of me.  A turtle just poked its head up in the water to look at me.  Oh, little turtle, what should I do, I sighed?  I feel lost here and don’t fit it, but I am stuck.  So stuck.

I put my head on my knees and just watched the turtle.  It held my gaze as it swam past me to the left.  It continued to hold my gaze as it stopped and turned around.  I thought, how silly.  I’ve never seen a turtle just stop and turn around.  Did it forget something?  Did it lose interest in what it was doing or get scared of something?  Did it just have an epiphany and realize it wanted to go back to the other side of the pond?  Back to where it came from… aaaaaah.  OK, little turtle.  I get your point.  It continued looking at me as it swam past me back to the right, as it carried its little home with it back in the direction it came from.

While I felt a little silly that I needed someone else to teach me that simple lesson, I was glad it was a turtle and not a human that could hit me on the side of the head and say “Go back, stupid!”  I thanked the turtle and ran back to my car, my hope and inspiration returned and I was already making preparations for my journey home in my mind, lighter by the thousands.  The turtle had shown me my path and gave me permission to turn around and go home.

I think the “invitational field” for medicine to find me was created when I asked the Universe, or anyone who would listen, what to do and then just listened.  I was already a person who believed in talking to plants and animals, regardless of whether they spoke back, so that part wasn’t new to me, but it was the receptivity to hearing the answer from any being at that time, that most helped me receive that answer and Call Back the Medicine.  To this day, I thank that turtle with my heart and I thank Turtle for the number of workings I have with her over the years.  Sometimes, you just have to hear it from someone else.  Thank you for answering me and being so patient with me!