Thank you Douglas Wood!

In my line of work I read many many many children's books. Over the past five years I've worked for several different families, each one differing in the values and beliefs they want their children to be raised with. Guaranteed, if a parent wants a certain belief or moral code built into their child, there will be multiple kid's books laying around that present the message in a way that not only conveys the beliefs in a simple, easily understandable way, but also with a air of truth, guiding the child to believe the principles/stories are Truth (capital T) from the beginning.

Because of my very intense aversion to organized religion, I've struggled with reading some of the stories I've found on these children's shelves. I take my job very seriously - I work with children during very formative years of their lives, and its hard for me in good conscience to read them books that present make believe as fact, and fiction as history - a history worth building their life on.

When one of the kids toddled up to me with this book in their hand, and I flipped through it only to see GOD sprawled across every other page, I was inwardly irritated. Having had a rough morning battling multiple tantrums and hot sticky weather, I was looking forward to naptime. But, knowing that refusing the book might induce another fit of tears, I sighed and snuggled the munchkin on my lap, opened the book, and prepared to present another set of ideas that I staunchly believed he'd be better without.

By the end of the book I was so relieved I could have cried. It's an amazing book - a beautifully illustrated story presenting the even more beautiful truth of God's presence not being confined to one entity or philosophy - but part of everything on earth.

I was so jazzed about the book in fact, that I copied it out and posted it below for you all to take a look at if you are so inclined :) I can't recommend this book, or this author, more highly!

Old Turtle by Douglas Wood

Once, long long ago…yet somehow, not so very long…

When all the animals and rocks and winds and waters and trees
And birds and fish and all the beings of the world could speak…and understand one another…

There began…AN ARGUMENT.

It began softly at first…

Quiet as the first breeze that whispered, “He is a wind who is never still.”
Quiet as the stone that answered, “He is a great rock that never moves.”
Gentle as the mountain that rumbled, “God is a snowy peak, high above the clouds.”
And the fish in the ocean that answered, " God is a swimmer, in the dark, blue depths of the sea.”

“No,” said the star, “God is a twinkling and a shining, far, far away.”
“No,” replied the ant, “God is a sound and a smell and a feeling, who is very, very close.”

“God,” said the antelope, " is a runner, swift and free, who loves to leap and race with the wind.”
“She is a great tree,” murmured the willow, “a part of the world, always growing and always giving.”

“You are wrong,” argued the island, “God is separate and apart.”
“God is like the shining sun, far above all things,” said the blue sky.
“No, He is a river, who flows through the very heart of things,” thundered the waterfall.

“She is a hunter,” roared the lion.
“God is gentle,” chirped the robin.
“He is powerful,” growled the bear.

And the argument grew LOUDER and LOUDER and LOUDER…

Until…

STOP!

A new voice spoke.

It rumbled loudly, like thunder. And it whispered softly, like butterfly sneezes. The voice seemed to come from… Why it seemed to come from…Old Turtle!

Now, Old Turtle hardly ever said anything, and certainly never argued about things like God.
But now Old Turtle began to speak. “ God is indeed deep,” she said to the fish in the sea; “and much higher than high,” She told the mountains.

“He is swift and free as the wind, and still and solid as a great rock,” She said to the breezes and stones. She is the life of the world,” Turtle said to the willow. “Always close by, yet beyond the farthest twinkling light,” She told the ant and the star.

“God is gentle and powerful. Above all things and within all things. “God is all the we dream of,
And all that we seek,” said Old Turtle, “all that we come from and all that we can find.

“God IS.”

Old Turtle had never said so much before. All the beings of the world were surprised, and became very quiet. But Old Turtle had one more thing to say.

“There will soon be a new family of beings in the world,” she said, “and they will be strange and wonderful. They will be reminders of all that God is. They will come in many colors and shapes
with different faces and different ways of speaking. Their thoughts will soar to the stars,
but their feet will walk the earth. They will possess many powers. They will be strong, yet tender, a message of love from God to the earth, and a prayer from the earth back to God.”

And the people came.

But the people forgot. They forgot that they were a message of love, and a prayer from the earth. And they began to argue… About who knew God - and who did not; and where God was, and was not; and whether God was, or was not. And often the people misused their powers, and hurt one another. Or killed one another. And they hurt the earth.

Until finally even the forests began to die… and the rivers and the oceans and the planets and the animals and the earth itself...Because the people could not remember who they were, or where God was.

Until one day there came a voice, like the growling of thunder; But as soft as a butterfly sneezes,

Please, STOP.

The voice seemed to come from the mountain who rumbled, “Sometimes I see God swimming, in the dark blue depths of the sea.”
And from the ocean who sighed, “He is often among the snow-capped peaks, reflecting the sun.”
From the stone who said, “I sometimes feel her breath, as she blows by.”
And from the breeze who whispered, “I feel his still presence as I dance among the rocks.”
And the star said, “God is very close.”
And the island said, “His love touches everything.”

And after a long, lonesome, and scary time…

..the people listened, and began to hear…

And to see God in one another… and in the beauty of all the Earth.

And Old Turtle smiled.

And so did God.