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Reflections June 2013

Life Is for Living

June Bugs and Delights Me

By Neil Wyrick

June does show a special aliveness. The flower for the month of June is the rose. And how appropriate it is since roses, like butterflies, come in such a variety of colors.

Certainly not the avalanche of flies that buzzingly descend or the bumblebees that used to sting my little boy feet — no, I note the flying rainbows, the 150,000 species of butterflies that like all insects have six jointed legs, 3 body parts, a pair of antennae, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton. Their tiny butterfly body covered by tiny sensory hairs. The four wings and the six legs are attached to the thorax that contains the muscles that make the legs and wings move with such majestic simplicity.

Even now, I can imagine the Wright brothers in their youthful years, watching these colorful flights and carrying the images forward to find culmination at Kitty Hawk.

June does show a special aliveness. The flower for the month of June is the rose. And how appropriate it is since roses, like butterflies, come in such a variety of colors.

Many colorful major events happened during this sixth month of the year. Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity on June 15, 1752. The Continental Congress adopted the United States flag on June 14, 1777. The Pledge of Allegiance received Congressional approval on June 22, 1942. June is certainly not meant for hibernation.

There is a flair to this month that invites doing. The very brightness speaks not of shadows but of children squealing with summer delight, especially sand and oceans. Fingers cry out for the opportunity to plant. Winter was dormancy’s reign but not this bright and lively time of year. And as for my love of music, I think perhaps I first fell in love with the music of a rippling brook and from there it was all uphill.

Sometimes I can almost hear the sound of mother nature dancing to the soft tune of the wind wafting through the limbs of nearby trees. It's difficult to find cold heart in this month of weddings. There is a warmth not of climate change that abounds.

It is a month that has spawned quotables such as "Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June." ~ Al Bernstein. "If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance." ~ Bern Williams. “And summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January." ~ Hal Borland.

Do you not waste this wonderful month? Do you walk of an evening, glorying in all the insect sounds, trading them in for incessant TV volume? Do you walk with a loved one's hand in yours — and the fact that it has 50 Junes of so doing make it even more special? At night, when sleepy silence paints it peculiar early summer majesty, it really is so very special.

I've lived through 84 Junes and loved them all. They've changed but so have I. So, I wish you a host of star-filled nights, and storm clouds filled with noisy charm, and sunsets that have an abundance of glory in them.

 

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