Swimming with Turtles and Lightning Bugs

Well, not actually swimming with the lightning bugs, just the turtles.

Growing up as a little girl in the woods of southwest Louisiana, I sat for hours on summer nights watching out the window to see the lightning bugs flicker through the night sky. (I sat inside, because only liars or the overly nostalgic/forgetful say they sat outside - you'd be eaten alive and carried away by mosquitoes if you really sat outside for hours.) I sat mesmerized and amazed by their glow. Even as a child, those tiny creatures were one of the intricacies of creation that convinced me of an Intelligent Designer (who has a sense of humor and delight). Who else would think to make a bug that lights up? Surely God must giggle like I do and smile as each bug competes with the stars in the vast expanse of his creation! And on the scientific side of things, the fact that different species of fireflies have different flash patterns to attract their own kind is only another point of evidence for His master plan.

So moving out here to the lake has been a reminder of all those wonderful hours gazing at the glow of the lightning bugs. We have them in proliferation out here, and I'm delighted. So if you hear a giggle in the darkness - it's me.

Now, as for the turtles, I'm not as big a fan. Oh, they're cute...over there. Not right beside me as a I paddle through the water. We had turtles in south Louisiana, too, but I opted not to swim with them or the crawfish in the front ditch. (Although once I remember we had a big flood - @ 12 inches of rain - and as my sister and I waded through the front yard, an eel swam by. We screamed. And ran. Of course, we were sure it was a deadly serpent, but when my dad saw it, we got a science lesson...indoors, of course.) Anyway, one turtle just seemed to follow me today. I was only in the water for about 40 minutes, but he kept popping his head up right ahead of me. I don't know if my sunscreen was his favorite scent or what, but I'll be wearing something different tomorrow. As a matter of note - turtles are in the reptile family, and to this new-to-the-lake live-r, a turtle's head looks too much like a snake's. All that to say, if you hear a scream in the blazing light of day, it's probably me.