Having grown up in the country, I have to admit that I have always been a bit of a nature freak. To my first mother's dismay, my usual pastime as a child was finding bugs, or critters, or some other wonder, and then tucking them in my pockets to bring home. This included bats, baby rabbits, baby o'possums, squirrels, and uh.....baby copperheads, which didn't amuse her in the least, since she had an absolute snake phobia. She much preferred the arrowheads or fossilized rocks I'd find in the fields and along the creek beds. In the summertime, I would spend the entire night sitting below the floodlights that my dad had put over the back portico of our house, and examining all of the bugs that were drawn to the lights. I saw some absolutely marvelous things, and my most cherished possession became a 'bug book' that my mother gave me, with pictures and descriptions of any kind of bug you could name. It became my mission to mark off every bug in that book and to see each one of them. It took me two or three years, but I finally accomplished that......with the exception of one: a luna moth. I desperately wanted to see one, but I never did. Time went on, and I put that on the back shelf of my mind, and continued examining everything else I happened across. One day, I came across a cicada emerging from its shell...and if you've never seen that happen, well, you've really, really missed something.

When they first emerge from their shells, they are the most wondrous shades of emerald green, neon pink, and have a sparkling gold pattern on the tops of their heads. Within minutes, the colors are gone and they become the dull black bugs that you're all familiar with. I sat and watched that bug struggle its way out of its dried brown shell, and it felt like I was seeing a miracle. Was an experience I never forgot.....and am ashamed to say that even as an adult, I still sometimes find myself poking thru the woods in search of that sight again each summer. As I grew up, there were two wishes I carried in my heart, even into adulthood....one was to finally see a luna moth, and the other was to see that wondrous cicada first greeting the air again. I mean.....do we EVER really grow up?? I really kinda hope not.....

I grew up, got married, had kids, all the things they say you're supposed to do as an adult, and on the surface, left behind all of the 'childish' things. I never voiced them to anyone, but I also never forgot them myself. I became a corrections officer, and my job was third shift yard patrol. Most nights I worked alone, roaming the grounds, responding to alarms, doing fence checks, and during those quiet times when the radio was quiet and the pressing work was done, I would sit alone at one of the picnic tables in the yard, or perched atop one of the field fence posts, with my thermos of coffee and listen to the snow fall or share my sandwich with one of the skunks or stray cats that had free run of the place. Little slice of heaven, in the midst of what most people would consider to be a hell of sorts.

My last week of yard patrol, came the night I was picking up count slips from the cottages. As I passed a tree in one of the yards, something caught my eye.....it was a cicada emerging from its shell. I couldn't get those count slips fast enough....made it to the capt. office in record time, then ran back to that tree, collected that cicada, and proceeded to take it to every cottage on that farm to show my other co-workers....most of whom thought I'd lost my flippin' mind. The biggest response I got was, 'EEWWWWWW, get that bug outta here, are you CRAZY??" A few of them wanted to know just what happy pill I'd taken (or what joint I'd smoked) prior to coming to work. I kept saying to them, "No, you just don't understand....you might go your whole life without ever seeing something like this again!!!" I just couldn't seem to impress anyone with the significance of this. Left me a bit deflated, to be honest. Evidently, I was the only one who thought this was something to be marveled at. So I took the cicada back to its tree to finish its work, and resumed my rounds, but gotta admit...was a bit sad about it all.

When the night was almost done, my work was finished, and the eastern sky began to show just a hint of brightness, I made my way back up to the admin building to brief my relief officer. As I turned the corner of the sidewalk, beneath the flickering light of the security lamp, I looked up......only to see one lone luna moth, flitting in the beam of light. Stopped me in my tracks....and an overwhelming sense came over me of a presence saying to me, "I never forget......." Thirty years later, the two most secret desires of a child's heart were granted....and all in one night....by Someone Who is not confined by space or time, and Who holds in His hands even the forgotten wishes of a no-longer-child. And frankly.....it just don't get no better than that. And.....I'll still keep looking, in hopes to see at least one more wonder before I leave here! So hang onto your dreams, anyone who reads this....because you never know when they might come true, and there's Someone Who never forgets....