In my Garden

 
Dog-day Cicada (Tibicen chloromera) on a Redbud leaf.
An Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis) one of the Narrow-winged Damselflies.
Silver-Spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) on Buddleia spike.

I haven’t taken the time… no, scratch that. I haven’t had the time to get out in my garden and go bug-hunting this summer. I’ll regret that this winter when I am longing for green, and crawly things, and the ability to be out of doors for any length of time. Still, I just don’t have the time to take an hour with camera in hand and go stalking. Maybe someday, in a calmer season of life. Until then, I have the photos to remind me that there is something beyond the dark of winter worth waiting for. 

A Bee Mimic Fly, one of the Syrphidae, but not the common Hover Fly

Sometimes I just have to remind myself – and you! – to stop and smell the roses while you can. Taking a little time to watch the world move at it’s own pace around you, while you capture that in memories against lesser days, that’s worth the effort. 

 

 

Comments

2 responses to “In my Garden”

  1. I’m a retired public school educator, with 24 years on the job. I also have three college degrees, and year-long fragments of two programs I escaped from before they finished me.
    Therefore, between obtaining my own education, and helping to provide one for others, I have maybe 40+ years of being closely tuned in to the various gifts and troubles the seasons bring.
    September (and, as the beginning of the school year was pushed earlier, August) was almost always a time of excitement and anticipation; dread USUALLY didn’t set in until first semester finals, and early on, that didn’t matter because of the Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.
    April and May were almost always days of delight, as I looked forward to a summer of family reunion, swimming, baseball, and reading all night and sleeping all morning. School’s out, HOORAY!!!
    The introduction of “Consequences of Non-performance” at the end of my freshman year in college, when I was invited to discontinue my enrollment, was a shocking, but necessary, introduction to the way adult life was going to work.
    The past 13 years of retirement, when school-year seasons weren’t affecting ME directly, have allowed me some perspective. True, I get the seasonal changes once removed through sophomore son Kenneth, and freshman daughter Alicia Ann, but relatively few demands are made on me due to their schooling. And, I find that I could not sum my conclusions up any better than this:

    “…stop and smell the roses while you can. Taking a little time to watch the world move at it’s own pace around you, while you capture that in memories against lesser days, that’s worth the effort. ”

    Peace be on your household.

  2. Kathleen Avatar
    Kathleen

    Even five minutes is better than nothing, but I think you need at least fifteen minutes for your mind to settle and focus. Try to find that much time each day.