As the busy energy of Spring has arrived, I have automatically let go of the contemplative presence of winter. My days are filled with "doing what I do" every year at this time: working the soil, digging up dandelions, and pruning raspberries.
Today was a gorgeous sun-filled day to work outside, play with Jesse, and go for a walk in the field across the street. Many moments were received as small treasures to hold in my heart such from the newly arrived rolled up leaves of the Canada Mayflower to the numerous galls I found on the goldenrod. I wanted to learn more about both of these and share them with people. I could research online or in books, instead I feel drawn to invent my own story featuring the Goldenrod Gall Fly as the main character.
The Goldenrod Gall Fly Story
It all starts on a warm summer day when a fly lays an egg on the goldenrod's bright blooms. The egg warms in the sun, hatches, and finds her way inside the flower. She is so mesmerized by the beauty of the flower that could live inside. This she does. She enters the flower as a tiny larva and crawls deep through tunnels and passages to a place she decides to stay. She was tired and quite full after eating so much along her journey.
Inside her safe place she stays for many months...through fall, winter, and spring. Until at last she is ready to emerge and eats a small hole from her house walls. She crawls through the hole to the outside. What a glorious place it is: blue sky, trees, green grass, and a flowing stream. She lays in the sun to warm her body when something catches her eyes.
Green leaves curled like tubes poke their way out of the dried leaves. Their brightness excites her, and their shape is somewhat familiar. She makes her way to the nearest leaf. At that moment, a ray of sunshine directly shines on the leaf and it unfurls ever so delicately. The fly is inspired with its grace and realizes she too has wings which are delicate and curled up.
She lays in the sun and makes a conscious effort to exercise her wings, flapping them up and down. Until eventually they unfurl (just like the leaf), and the fly is free to live her life. She is ready to fly.