From the water to the air

Have you ever heard of a naiad? No, I'm not talking about some mythological character. A naiad is an insect that can live for years, though some types only live for months. They live under the water. They eat small creatures, other insects, are pretty good at catching their prey. Great, great swimmers!


But a naiad is only the nymph (adolescent) stage of a particular insect.


After all that time swimming, the naiad crawls out of the water, sheds its skin, and boom! It's a dragonfly!!!


Yes, a dragonfly! You read that right. After potentially years of swimming, the dragonfly crawls out flies.


One day it has gills (according to the book I was reading) and the next day it is breathing air.


How cool is that!


Talk about an example of a great change!

Crazy Seeds!

Last year I planted a ton of seeds in one of my flower beds. Not just for one kind of flower, even. I planted three different types of seeds with the hope that when they grew we would then have a very floral, colorful, pretty flower bed.

Nope.

Nothing.

Not one of them grew. Instead all I got were weeds. Constant, never ending weeds that poke you when you try and pull them without the weed puller.

I was upset that all that work I had done with planting the seeds hadn't yielded any results. They had soil, they had water, they had sun. What was their problem?

Then winter came and dashed my hopes away for the little seeds. When we got snow I figured that the seeds would probably never grow.

Until this week. The flowers are growing! It's February and my little seeds are growing! What the crud!

While cities in the eastern United States are having above average freezing conditions and trying hard to get rid of their snow, some other cities in the country are experiencing abnormally warm conditions.

And apparently I'm in a warm city because the disappointing seeds I planted last year are growing in February!!!! The pictures in this post are the flowers I planted last year.

But my late flowers are a good reminder that once a seed (literal or figurative) is planted, you never know what results it will bring. Or when it will bring them.

This can be applied to almost everything. Ideas, beliefs, thoughts. It can be good or bad. Sometimes the seed of the beginnings of faith can be planted, and years down the road the person may join a religion. Or sometimes a person can feel pretty or smart or wanted because someone long ago planted the seed by telling them that they are.

Sometimes seeds are bad. Like when someone turns to pornography because they had happened upon on it once before (the seed) and now they want to find it again. Or when someone keeps thinking back to something mean that someone else told them once, and over time it eats at them and they wonder if it is true.

Be sure that the figurative seeds you are planting are good, because sometimes all it takes is one snow storm or abnormally warm weather to make them grow. If you want good results, you have to plant good seeds.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It's a time of new beginnings, goals and hope. Isn't that funny? The new year comes around and we all use it as a time to re-apply our selves to goals, to get a fresh start. And why not?

We all have things we could improve on, change or pursue.

So, Happy 2015 and onward!