caterpillars

We seem to be having a grand year for Eastern Tent Caterpillars. We've been seeing them by the hundreds, and Heidi is enchanted. Every day she finds a few, holds on to them and lets them crawl up her arms "because it tickles, mama." She has declared her love to them and has tried to coax a few of them to spin cocoons in a bucket lovingly prepared with leaves. She carries them, watches them, kisses them (no, really) and when I ask her to let them go, she sets them on a leaf and declares "it loves me because it crawled right back on my hand!"

I love her openness to nature. She doesn't question, she is so busy experiencing it. And while I try to make sure the caterpillars don't suffer in the process, I also try not to hover, to really let her be immersed in this experience. And of course it makes me think of one of my favorite verses:

To see the world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

This is just how Heidi seems to live her life. Of course I wonder what she thinks about when communing with the caterpillars, for later in the Auguries of Innocence, Blake writes:

The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh.

One step at a time, methinks.

first signs of spring

Our family does not have a tradition of celebrating candlemas or Imbolc (yet). Until this weekend it never made sense to me to begin a celebration of spring in February, when it so clearly is way too cold. But on Saturday, we were sitting at lunch and watched the birds outside our big window. The robins had returned! We bade them farewell a couple of months ago when they gathered in our holly tree. This weekend, they pecked at the frozen ground and sat in the trees. Puffed up for warmth, they looked like little round red tree ornaments. So spring really is coming! Welcome back, robins!

Tomorrow morning we go have Heidi's heart checked again. If you have a minute, send her good health wishes for stable heart function and valves. Lets hope our little warrior princess is in continued good health. Thanks, and enjoy the slow awakening of the earth from her sleep.