Cocoon
So we've been watching our ladybug larvae every day. I wish I had taken photos in the beginning. They were not what I expected. Long narrow black beetle-like bugs with six legs and whitish spots. They have grown quickly and yesterday Cai and I tried once again to count them. They've been busy skittering around doing larvae-like things, but we think there are 13 or 14.
Well today we checked them and they were all pretty still. At first I panicked and ran to fill their water. I was afraid I had forgotten and dehydrated the lot. Then I looked closer and realized they have gone into their next stage of development. They are attached, mostly to the clear plastic dome lid, and kind of curled into themselves like potato bugs. Several hours later we looked again and two of them had developed a cream colored cocoon that covered everything but their little faces. So quickly!
I keep walking by the little container and each time I catch a glimpse of the little Buddha-bugs I have a feeling of calm, it is an utterance of awe. It is a feeling I can't describe, reverential, it is what I think a miracle might look like on a cloudy day in April. These little creatures are changing right in front of us.
I'm hoping that 40 years from now my boys are reading this, my sweet sons. I'm hoping that you read this and that you understand what I am talking about, if only just a little bit. I am talking about what many people call God. At this moment in time that I am writing, it's taken the form of baby ladybugs inside our home. It is also in the form of you two, one fat baby wrapped in a cotton quilt in my bed and a second three year old ball of wonder eating sugar snap peas and running down the hall whispering to me that he is Spider-man.
I try so hard to see into the future, to see these men that I have the honor to love as boys. I hope with everything I have that I can help you both catch a glimpse of the inordinate beauty that exists, and that you find a way to hold onto a piece of that feeling. As I see it, what that equals is joy, and that is my only goal for you two.
Well today we checked them and they were all pretty still. At first I panicked and ran to fill their water. I was afraid I had forgotten and dehydrated the lot. Then I looked closer and realized they have gone into their next stage of development. They are attached, mostly to the clear plastic dome lid, and kind of curled into themselves like potato bugs. Several hours later we looked again and two of them had developed a cream colored cocoon that covered everything but their little faces. So quickly!
I keep walking by the little container and each time I catch a glimpse of the little Buddha-bugs I have a feeling of calm, it is an utterance of awe. It is a feeling I can't describe, reverential, it is what I think a miracle might look like on a cloudy day in April. These little creatures are changing right in front of us.
I'm hoping that 40 years from now my boys are reading this, my sweet sons. I'm hoping that you read this and that you understand what I am talking about, if only just a little bit. I am talking about what many people call God. At this moment in time that I am writing, it's taken the form of baby ladybugs inside our home. It is also in the form of you two, one fat baby wrapped in a cotton quilt in my bed and a second three year old ball of wonder eating sugar snap peas and running down the hall whispering to me that he is Spider-man.
I try so hard to see into the future, to see these men that I have the honor to love as boys. I hope with everything I have that I can help you both catch a glimpse of the inordinate beauty that exists, and that you find a way to hold onto a piece of that feeling. As I see it, what that equals is joy, and that is my only goal for you two.
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