Everyone likes a good story and that's why we created the fable of the flying turtle. Most good stories are about people having the courage to do things differently, go in new directions, taking risks, which is what Flying Turtle is all about. The turtle has a dream, a dream to fly. The turtle’s companions come together and only through working together is the dream realized. And that's what we are striving for together at Flying Turtle.

One sunny afternoon, a turtle wandered through the weeds of the great circle and remembered the springs of his childhood, when the grass was trampled flat by the squirrels, bears, elk, and skunks as they had gathered to share their stories. Eventually the birds had flown south; the bears had lumbered off into their own open spaces and even the squirrels had become obsessed with hoarding their nuts. The turtle’s memories turned into dreams, and dreams turned into something else - something that sparkled and shined.

He wandered through the forest looking for this thing and found a piece of metal gleaming in the sunlight. He took it back to the great circle where he found a fox, lounging in the sun. “And what are you up to, Mr. Turtle,” the fox asked, with a slight smile on his lips. The turtle said he wasn’t sure, but that he wanted to find more of these hard, bright things. The fox, a lover of all things shinny, joined the turtle. Together they found a cast off watch, the door to an old oven, a rusted fan… Soon a small hill glittered in the centre of the great circle.

A boar, returning from a meal of berries, saw this collection of treasures in a different light. He used his nose to push a piece into this crack and that. Soon he had made the thing fit together snuggly. The three animals wondered what this new thing could be. A band of squirrels bounded into the circle. “A hiding-in place,” they said. “A new place,” and they ran inside of the large shiny thing. Finding cogs and wheels, the squirrels spun and turned them just as they had played with the autumn leaves When the squirrels finally came out, they were laughing. “It is a flying thing. A lifting off the ground thing,” they all said at once. The big metal wings at the top of the thing began to turn. And the boar and the fox and the turtle knew this was exactly what it must be.

“But,” the fox asked, “what is it for?” Mr. Bear, who had been listening just outside of the circle, had had enough. He knew that whatever this thing was, it was something for doing, not just thinking and talking. He lumbered over, picked the turtle up, and with a surprising gentleness, slipped the turtle into the harness beneath the machine. The turtle, hovered there above them for a moment before slowly climbing higher. A heron was almost startled out of the air as the turtle suddenly floated in front of him. A flying turtle. “And how,” the Heron asked, “have you managed to find your way up here?” “As is usually the case,” the turtle said, “it all began with a dream.” The turtle stretched out his neck and looked at all the animals gathering in the great circle below. But dreams are only the first chapter of a story,” the turtle said. “Will you come and help us finish ours?”