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The heartbreak of family separation over many months profoundly affects mental health...and yet the goal is to reduce contact and risk and keep people physically safe and healthy..
"February to July in lockup for unknown sentence. Even prisoners know when they are getting out !" dad
I came across this video on Twitter this morning...a compilation of dancers around the world performing during the "time of corona"...excellent work..credits Directed & edited by Angela El-Zeind Music: Garcia Counterpoint, by Bryce Dessner. With thanks to Beggars Group March-June 2020
A Sign of Evolution, Transition and Change at a Time of Chaos Clear Winged Hummingbird Moth6/1/2020
 A Hovering Muse an Encouraging Sign of Transition and Change "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Darwin # Animalia, arthropoda, Insecta lepidoptera Sphingidae, hemaris Thysbe Hummingbird clear wing moth It was after an unproductive few weeks I had taken my writing out to the deck. I picked up my pen and just then saw hovering above the Bougainvillea what I thought looked like a large bee. On closer inspection, I thought... no, can’t be, it's a tiny hummingbird, must be the tinker bell of Ontario hummers, rare I guessed. I did note something strange. It had feelers. Quickly I consulted my copy of “A Field Guide to the Birds”. I went directly to the section on hummingbirds. The ruby throated hummingbird at 3 ¾ inches is the only eastern species in Ontario. This curiosity was much smaller than that hummingbird. No feelers indicated.. My tiny whirring bird I soon discovered was not a hummingbird at all but a hummingbird clear wing moth. The moth was, in fact, closely related to Darwin’s hummingbird hawk moth a superb example of adaptive change and convergent evolution. Over millions of years it had developed hovering skill, rapid wing power and a well developed proboscis for probing flowers and feeding on the sweet energy giving nectar source it needed to survive. This creature, my muse, was all about change. The clear winged hummingbird moth had advanced through the miraculous stages of its own metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar,pupa to cocoon emerging as an adult moth. It used its own wing power to take to the air where it was battered by wind, rain and the elements all the while avoiding sharp eyed hawks and other predators. A survivor and a fighter, a rare specimen, I was seeing one individual that closely resembled another and yet in its own way was utterly unique adapting to the challenges of change and thriving. Sometimes when life seems out of sync and upside down, when you are seeking peace and grounding but find yourself surrounded by chaos and conflict the inspiration to carry on may be found in an observation close to home, in the littlest of things, like the fortunate sighting on my garden deck, a small clear winged hummingbird moth, that determined miracle of evolution I saw hovering there right before my eyes. |
Cheryl L. McLean
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