Cicadas! (If Mother Nature had a printing press...)

Nashville's cicadas two years ago prompted a burst of local creativity resulting in the selling of posters and bumper stickers and the sharing of recipes, yes, recipes related to cicadas.  I watched and pondered what paraphernalia might read if the cicadas and Mother Earth accessed a printing press.

As I've read of the cicadas emergence now in the East, I've returned to what arrived for me that evening in hopes that people (including myself) will awaken again along with the cicadas.

May 8, 2011

Upon coming home tonight from an out of town trip, I discovered company had arrived two days early.  I was slightly surprised as they were publicly anticipated the 10th.  Yet I knew they were here as soon as I stepped from the car.  One made its presence known in my back yard.  I walked across the deck and there  two waiting me.  I exclaimed, "You're here" and immediately grabbed my camera.

Yes, the 13 year cicadas are here and although some folks will be frightened and avoid going outside, I am exceedingly happy.  The last time these guys (and girls) were here my sister and I videotaped their debut.  We lugged a rather large video camcorder (remember those things?) about my postage stamp size yard recording cicadas crawling up the hack berry trees and foundation of the house.

Again this night they cling to the foundation of our house where they're in various stages of coming out of their skin.  The site of these other worldly beings make some people want to come out of their skin.  My reaction is just the opposite.  Hearing them stirs a deep soul sense of being at home in my body, my skin.

Nature is mesmerizing and cicadas are part of that package for me. I watch and wonder as they are  transformed. How is it they know to start their journey from below every 13 years? What's their process for waking? Are they like humans in the morning? Do some wake up ready to crawl while others are groggy and take their time moving on up? Whatever their pace, they rely on the inner GPS. 

The local newspaper recently carried a story about a guy who's created a line of cicada memorabilia including a sign that reads:  

"Cicada Invasion - Sing, Fly, Mate, Die."

I'm all for creativity, but after reading the story I thought if Mother Nature had a printing press what might she design based on her observations of us?  Her bumper sticker or poster would likely read:

 "Human Invasion - Sing, Fly, Assimilate, Die"

Think about it.  Each of us starts out as children and as such when really young our hearts sing and with our imaginations we fly.  Unfortunately just as we're coming into the fullness and freedom of our imaginative selves, most of us enter schools where song, flight and wonder are educated out of us or manipulated into our inner recesses.  Imagination and the creative streams of inner life are quietly buried.

This process results in many people experiencing the remnants of what the cicadas leave behind - a shell.  People walk around looking alive, but inside feel empty and lifeless. Something's missing.

Fortunately this doesn't have to be the end of the story.  Creativity, art, music and yes, Nature can return to us a sense of wonder and curiosity.  We can wake up from the sleep or spell that's been cast and remember how to sing and fly and leave behind the shells of our former, anesthetized selves.  Instead of human potential dying, I imagine the dying of ignorance, illusion and separation.  

As the cicadas awaken and rise from their many-yeared sleep, I imagine humankind rising and remembering we came here, like the cicadas, to sing and to fly! 

Imagine the Shift our rising brings! 

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, reposted 12 June 2013, first posted 8 May 2011
dawn@imaginetheshift.com