We may be obsessed with our laptops and tablets and smart phones, yet people still yearn to commune with nature, and not just through such grand gestures as visiting Yellowstone National Park or hiking the Appalachian Trail.
The humble things, the backyard connections, may matter even more, perhaps because they assure us that there’s still a slice of wilderness to be found right outside our door. That’s why we enjoy spotting skunks (as long as we don’t get sprayed) and raccoons (if the trash cans are secure) as they wander down the driveway.
A few days ago, I found a luna moth on the side door of our garage. So I took a few pictures of it and measured its wing span (four inches). After posting one of the photos on Facebook, I went about my business without giving the moth too much thought.
But my Facebook friends were smitten. Several of them posted comments, or simply indicated that they liked the photo. Some marveled at the moth’s beauty and its size. When my wife Liz shared the photo on her Facebook page, she too got favorable reactions. “Gorgeous!” one friend wrote. “Wow!” said another. A third offered this: “It is enormous! And what a beautiful color!”
The sight of a bald eagle soaring above a river, or a herd of deer crossing a country road, always evokes wonder and joy. It’s reassuring to realize that the more modest denizens of the animal world, right down to a lowly (albeit rather large) insect, can have the same effect.
The humble things, the backyard connections, may matter even more, perhaps because they assure us that there’s still a slice of wilderness to be found right outside our door. That’s why we enjoy spotting skunks (as long as we don’t get sprayed) and raccoons (if the trash cans are secure) as they wander down the driveway.
A few days ago, I found a luna moth on the side door of our garage. So I took a few pictures of it and measured its wing span (four inches). After posting one of the photos on Facebook, I went about my business without giving the moth too much thought.
But my Facebook friends were smitten. Several of them posted comments, or simply indicated that they liked the photo. Some marveled at the moth’s beauty and its size. When my wife Liz shared the photo on her Facebook page, she too got favorable reactions. “Gorgeous!” one friend wrote. “Wow!” said another. A third offered this: “It is enormous! And what a beautiful color!”
The sight of a bald eagle soaring above a river, or a herd of deer crossing a country road, always evokes wonder and joy. It’s reassuring to realize that the more modest denizens of the animal world, right down to a lowly (albeit rather large) insect, can have the same effect.
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