Forever Young: Lepidoptera

Blog Manifesto

This blog is dedicated, as the title would suggest, to the qualities of being young. We are young writers. We are playful and sensitive, fluid and changing. We are unashamed with our art. We wonder at the world, puzzle over the meanings of things and twirl in delight at images and ideas that float by, grabbing at them as they pass. We are curious and constantly inquiring and prying concepts open and taking assumptions apart. We are on the ground, close to the earth. We have bare feet and wiggle our toes into nature. We carry our blankies still and wrap up cozy and comfy with each other and tell ghost stories and shiver at creepy things. We laugh and we cry and we take a lot of naps, drained from our outings and exertions.

We write as gifts to each other, tying them up in ribbon and leaving them around for each other to find, hiding and waiting for the person to wake up and read. Surprise! We weave our stories together to create a bond. One writes, then the other. then another again. We have a shared reality that we have crafted, bit by piece by patch, by string. We write simple, honest authentic things, with our unique voices. You can tell each one of us from the other, without knowing who wrote what. Our voices are clear and gentle and original. We whisper and our personalities roar! Like children, our feelings are strong, our passion for what we write shakes us. We are moved and sometimes left breathless, by our own words or the words of each other. We cannonball into each others spaces. We fall backward into each others writing, like into a pile of leaves or a soft bed. We gobble and grin and ask for more. (footnote kudos to JC)

Then we go to bed, wake up to a new day and do it all over again!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera, my favorite kind of bug...Probably one of the biggest differences between Washington State where I had lived and California, my new home, was the multitude of butterflies available for my scientific collecting. I was twelve and running with my net through the fields and gullies behind our new house. The yellow swallowtails could be found all over the milkweed plants and I actually watched them lay eggs on the stalks. In the dry creek bed the giant Buckeye trees made cooling shade and the Buckeye butterflies fanned out their wings and clung to their flowers making little brown owls with big eyes appear out of nowhere on the leaves. The common White Cabbage Spot was the only one I recognized from my previous home in the Northwest. It looked dull and flighty next to these new varieties so brilliant in the California sun.

I felt a new freedom in this summer of '56. There was no rain to soak wings, no cold to keep us locked up. The bright hot sun kept us out in the air and out under the shade, and out running and resting, the butterflies and I.

1 comment:

reeseApril 17, 2012 at 9:48 AM
Sharon...
I did not know what a Lepidoptera was so I had to google it:
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies (called lepidopterans). It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect ...
I find Bugs & Insects very interesting.
This was a fun topic...well done!
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