This is Peanut Butter Brickle. There are individuals that you only meet for a brief moment.
There are individuals that you know all of your life.
Then there are some that come into your life during a certain period of your life. You know in your heart that you won’t know them for long. You try not to let your heart get attached.
And then you realize that your heart has other ideas.
A little baby gopher turtle named Eugene is a heart stealer. Gandpa named him that.
Eugene is a baby gopher turtle. We don’t know how old he is. But he is old enough to wander around and old enough to be independent.
But he’s not big enough to be seen very easily. And he doesn’t realize that a driveway isn’t a place for a very young heart stealer like himself. And well, he is keeping our days very busy with turtle watching.
We have to make sure that every time someone comes in or out of the driveway that he isn’t there or headed there. He is very small and it’s a very big job to keep track of him.
So I thought maybe we should just put him somewhere safe for now and take him with us to that Italy place when we move.
I was sure that a gopher turtle named Eugene would like to go and ride on a ship.
And that he might like to try spaghetti.
And that he may like to live with me.
But when I asked him, I knew right away. He didn’t want to go to Italy. Eugene doesn’t want to go to Italy at all.
Eugene expressed that it may look like he just wanders around with nowhere to go. But he has a routine. A comfortable way of life. He knows he was born here and he always wants to be here. Although I don’t understand him, the fact is, he doesn’t understand why I would ever want to leave this driveway.
He doesn’t understand or care about the world outside of his home. He only wants home. He only knows home.
And that’s ok. Eugene doesn’t want to go to Italy. Not everyone wants to roam. And also, not everyone wants to live in the same place. But everyone can take care of our little world. Wherever we are.
And we can respect what others want. Most importantly, we should not judge or talk someone into what we want.
I wish Eugene wanted to go to Italy. But why do I wish that? Because I will miss him. He says he wishes that I would stay here. Because he will miss me. So who is right? We both are.
We both let our hearts love and care. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
–Peanut Butter Brickle
