It brings me comfort to recognize the many things that there are to love about life – the things to do, the things to see. I am not sure why – though I have an inkling – why I love turtles and do my best to not let one cross the road unassisted.

As a kid playing in the creeks and bayous around the west side of Houston, I was intrigued by box turtles and how they can “disappear” into their shells; I was impressed by the red-eared sliders as they slid from the banks or off rocks and into the water, and then see their heads pop up some distance from where they entered the water.  My friends and I sometimes encountered soft-shelled turtles, and their snake-like heads. My dad and I dealt with the frustrations of the sliders as they chased our bait around when fishing on farm ponds, and he dealt with snapping turtles on trot lines. Things did not end well for the snapping turtles.

As a youngster, my buddies and I would throw rocks and sticks at turtles in the water and scoop up the terrestrial types to play with them. I’ve had turtles of various types for pets over the years. But now…I just try to rescue them when I see them crossing the street. That must strike a chord in others because sometimes people will slow down as they drive by to give me a “thumbs up” or comment about my pulling over so I can pick up a slow-moving turtle from the road and carry it to the safety of where it was headed.

I don’t use live bait anymore, so I don’t have the irritation of them disrupting my fishing; there are no McInnis trot lines being run, so there are no snapping turtles to deal with; and, I can’t even remember the last time that I saw a soft-shelled turtle.

I saw a lot of the sliders the other day while walking along the dam to the lake near our home. It was warm and they were out in force, basking the warmth of the sun while they rested on logs, rocks and pretty much anything that stuck out of the water near the bank and was strong enough to hold them. It must have been a productive offspring season because many of the turtles were lil’ ones. Seeing them all took me back in time to good times…a lot of them.

There’s a lot to love. Maybe that’s the point of life and living.