I have lived in Florida for most of my life and have never seen this process. I've seen hundreds of left-behind cicada shells hanging on trees (usually pine trees) but never have I see the molting and emerging.
This is what it looked like.
How freaky and alien is that? As it dried and the skin hardened, the legs developed right before our eyes. We kept checking on it. Did it hurt? Was the cicada scared? Mystified? How could anyone know?
We went inside for a few minutes. Like, fifteen, and when we came back out into the dark to check, this is what had happened.
I was distraught that I hadn't stayed outside to watch. I'm sure I could find a video of the process on Youtube but that wouldn't be the same.
So many things on this earth all around us that we have no idea about. It never ceases to astound me.
Mr. Moon is already in town with the truck and the trailer. I will be going in later to help with the boys, probably, and to go with Mr. Moon for his echocardiogram. It is a bit ironic that this appointment to see if his heart is healthy will interrupt his hauling of beds and couches.
They moved the refrigerator and chest freezer last night. Got the hot water heater going. Maybe the little family will be able to sleep in their new house tonight. I hope so. Owen wanted to desperately last night. He said he was going to force his mother to let them.
I said, "Honey, you can't do that."
"Yes I can," he said. "I'm going to force her to death."
He is so excited.
I keep thinking of Gibson, waking up in the night as he still does sometimes, wanting to get into his parent's bed. Will he get lost in the new house? There are hallways and rooms between his bed and Mama's, unlike where he's been living his entire life where he only has to walk a few steps down one hallway to find her.
He'll manage.
Change is good. Sometimes it comes so eerily fast we miss it and sometimes it comes so gradually we don't recognize it.
Either way, we need to pay attention.
Good morning.
Love...Ms. Moon
yes, he will manage. a new house. what excitement for the boys. Lily too. and the cicada ...so cool. never seen it though my grandboy did find one that had just hatched and was hanging on the tree drying out. I got a very good picture of that. yes, change is inevitable. and it's a good thing or nothing would ever grow!
ReplyDeleteThat cicada is amazing. I've never seen that process either. I bet it feels really GOOD -- stretching out after it's been scrunched up for so long!
ReplyDeleteI was saying to my husband on Saturday that Mary Moon is about to get a new grandson, and one of her other daughters is also pregnant and they just moved to a new house with a fabulous deck, and her third daughter is getting married soon. And I told him that I had been reading you when Jessie met Virgil, and then she graduated nursing school and they got married and moved to Asheville, and then bought a house and moved back to Lloyd, and now they were having a baby. He was right there with me. Change is lightening fast, but if we're lucky, we get carried along. I am so happy for you. Until I have grand babies of my own, I'm living vicariously through you. Sending love to you and your family. And may Mr. Moon's expansive heart be well.
ReplyDeleteEllen Abbott- But change sure can be hard, can't it? It has to take me kicking and screaming. I am not proud of that aspect of my personality.
ReplyDeleteSteve Reed- We're probably anthropomorphizing like crazy here but yeah- it has to feel good!
Angella- You have my total permission to live vicariously through me with the grandbaby issue. Or any other you may choose. My husband knows many of y'all's names and stories. He even asks about people sometimes. I love that. Thank you for all of the good wishes. I feel certain that Glen's heart is just fine. But it's good to truly know, I suppose.
Lol, I'm going to force her to death :D
ReplyDeleteAlso slightly amused by Mr M's heart appointment. I hope there's no reason for him to stop hauling couches.
The cicada... god, nature is so weird. Definitely an alien creature, and an alien process.
A cicada emerging into a new life. How very symbolic. A new house. New babies. So much joy.
ReplyDeleteThat was freaky! I clicked on the photos and enlarged them and if that didn't look like an alien hatching to take over the plant..well - spooky cool.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet that if Gibson is really scared he could just use Owen's thing and "force them to death" to let him sleep with them the first night. But there will be so much love in that house that he will probably be OK.
Oh the irony, yes, of the husband going for an echo between loads of furniture-moving :) I hope it confirms that all is well with his heart.
ReplyDeleteThat bug is really scary but also really neat.
That emergence was cool. Owen is precious and I bet his persistence works too and Gibson will find his way, even if he starts in his parents bed to begin with. Your family is the best.
ReplyDeleteI know that change is good and necessary but dang. I'm not good at it. And the older I get the less good at it I get. I've already (at age 43) become one of those people who keeps saying "remember when it was like that instead of like this?" I'm sure I'm incredibly annoying.
ReplyDeleteCicadas are cool.
Exciting for Owen and Gibson to have a new house. I can imagine it is strange though. Every house I have lived in--only one during childhood and five in adulthood have been hard to leave. Memories.
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