How to Live in Deep Time:

On the universe and self

(Article in Orion Magazine)

by Ellen Wayland-Smith

IN MY BACKYARD, I have a makeshift pond: a galvanized steel tub, about two feet in diameter, outfitted with an electric filter, heating coil, algae-skimmed driftwood, and a paving stone propped up on two overturned clay flowerpots. It is a summer day, and from where I sit, reading in the shade, I hear the filter bubble softly as the sun crests the roof of the house. Soon, I hear a flippery noise—a muffled knock and splash of water against the tub’s sides. I put down my book.

Sweeney, our three-year-old red-eared slider turtle, hoists himself—neck straining, claws scraping—up out of the water and onto the sun-soaked paving stone for his afternoon bask.

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