What is life trying to tell you?
I will be 39 tomorrow. How in the heck did that happen? That is almost 40! Forty years of life. What have I learned? I believe life teaches us many lessons. For me it is God sending me signs. Others may call it the Universe. He has sent me a few signs the last few weeks in the form of turtles. When I received a gift from one of my students that had a turtle on it, it probed me to search further to figure out what he was trying to tell me. So I looked up the symbolism of Sea Turtles.
The symbolism of the ancient animal is the magic of intuition, vast journeys and the gift of a long life. Well I'll take it :) It includes trusting your inner vision. The Sea turtle opens up to experiencing new terrains and ideas while maintaining a comfortable self pace. Hmmmm...kinda reminds me of this photography journey I am on, although I do need to maintain a more comfortable self pace. The turtle has the wisdom of knowing that all things come in perfect and divine timing. I am also learning this on my journey. I am trusting God and the process and leaving it up to him and his timing instead of trying to force things both personally and professionally. His timing is always best.
The turtle understands the need for protection where it retreats to the safety of its shell. I can learn from this symbolic meaning to create a spiritual shield that will serve as my armor against negativity, harmful influences and painful memories. It can be tough to put yourself out in a public forum, especially being a shy person at heart. But I know that I can retreat from these moments, learn from them and come out stronger spiritually. Here I can gather inner wisdom and emerge strengthened and prepared to move forward.
The strong turtle takes vast journeys into the sea, letting the tides take her where they will. She surrenders and trusts that all will be ok and she will arrive when and where she is supposed to. This is a beautiful lesson about life and trusting in the flow of life , and partaking in the blessings that we are gifted with along the way. Life is a myriad of journeys. Ones with many moments of serendipity or happy accidents that the sea turtle is also a symbol for. I will glady take some of those this year too :)
Longevity is also a gift from the symbol of a turtle. They live a long and fruitful life that teaches great spiritual significance of taking the very best care of yourself and having a long life with splendid journeys and learning life's valuable lessons. I am going to take a lesson from this in the last year of my 30's and try to take better care of myself. I also look forward to connecting with future clients and helping them capture their beautiful memories along the way through photography. while staying in contact with current and past clients as their lives evolve and change.
The inner wisdom that comes from Turtle spirit animal arrives from "going inside" and finding peace and safety and taking journeys of the spirit. Photography is a journey of the spirit for me. These journeys of the spirit open the turtle and you up to the magic realm of imagination and intuition where anything is possible.
People are also placed in our lives to teach us lessons and my beautiful son is a daily reminder to slow down! Enjoy life, take everything in. I am often not very receptive to this lesson when we are running late, or he is taking his time to get to the car in the morning, but I need to learn from him and slow down and know that I will get there when I am supposed to and I need to enjoy the journey along the way. He already knows his spirit animal, and wants to be a turtle catcher when he grows up! : )
If you took the time to read this, thank you, and thank you for supporting me on this incredible journey. I urge you to pay attention, slow down, and pay attention to the signs and see where they lead you... and enjoy every moment and be present with those around you. Or you just might miss something! Let's hope I can take my own advice!