TRIUMPH OF SPIRIT IN LOVE, NATURE & ART

Jeepers Peepers

Above: the vernal pool not yet unfrozen and below: the YouTube video to hear the song of the Spring Peepers

It is late afternoon and it is spring according to the calendar although still quite cool.  I have just spent the late afternoon listening to “music.”  Some have likened it to the sound to bells.  Others to bird song. And still others, with unimaginable disdain, to “some kind of nature noise.”  For me it is one of the happiest of sounds.  The act of creation transformed into sound decibels for all to hear.  A sound that comes from the earth and resounds to the heavens, unwittingly praising the Almighty.  I hate to leave, and wish I lived even closer to the pond, so that the sound would surround me totally, filling my ears every evening with the sound of perhaps the single-most highlight of spring for me.  The siren song of the Spring Peepers.

How have they cast their spell over so many?   I cannot say except that their song is uplifting and filled with hope despite the natural perils they face daily.  For, as true of all of us, they may die at any moment– say as a meal for a nearby perching crow or underneath murky waters eaten by a snapping turtle.  They call for a mate without ceasing, without fear, single-mindedly, without a thought for their own safety.  It is nature at its most elemental, in its most singular scope.  They all sing out vying to be heard– so many voices.  In some spots, I am told, their song is deafening.  How nice to be there; I cannot get enough of their sweet music.  It moves me to tears–  these tiny creatures singing out their heart’s desire.

As I return home to family “situations” and domestic duties, I yearn for the simplicity of their song.  Their total fervor.  For if they sing then all is right in that small part of the world.  Progress has not paved over their pond.  Disdainful humans have not drained a “vernal pool.”  David Carroll writes about vernal pools in one of his books on turtles called The Swampwalker’s Journal.  As the title suggests, Carroll walks through such places in search of turtles and other amphibians.  He defines a vernal pool as a pool of water that fills up in Fall and Winter and freezes, swells in the Spring and often dries up by end of Summer.  But a vernal pool is utmost a place of magic, not only where turtles lurk, but also where mating frogs deposit gelatinous eggs, which turn first into tadpoles, and then, later, become frogs. Vernal pool habitats hold a galaxy of small things that come to life the instant ice and snow turn back into water. And after a requisite series of warm days, followed by spring rains, on the first dark night, vernal pools become the site of the “salamander night.”  Salamanders leave their hibernacula to go for a night of endless mating and then return to leaf litter in the woods to disappear for the rest of the year.  Some people, who know nothing of vernal pools and their function, deem them a nuisance, a “big puddle” to be filled in or drained.  Some people know little of spring peepers except that they are “noisy,” “like some sort of insect.”  (Poor insects being made out to be the pesky lowest of the low.)   The natural symphony of hormonal, harmonic sounds sometimes falls on deaf ears.

And when, after finishing my evening chores,  I try to read, I find the haunting sound of the spring peepers deep within my psyche, making me restless and anxious and wishing to be at that pond, surrounded on all sides by their sex song, inebriated by the unbridled joy in the air, immersed in the utter power of nature manifesting in one of her gentler forms.  In the song of the Spring Peepers nature celebrates life-to-be rather than taking lives away.  For most of all the song of the Spring Peepers is a song of tremendous faith, faith in love, and faith that love will propagate and new life will emerge untouched by the often destructive hand of man.

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To read about and/or give to Michael’s foundation for orphan and street children in Uganda, click on the link below the picture of Michael and Angie:

http://www.gofundme.com/f/sustainability-support-for-the-Makindye-Foundation

This entry was posted on March 28, 2024 by . It was filed under Animal & Landscape Photographs, Animal Columns & Poems, Charities in Uganda, Environment, Music of Nature, Nature Columns, Nature Photography, Newspaper articles, Reflections, Spirituality, Uncategorized and was tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , .

30 responses

  1. Ramble

    Such a heart-warming description of a beautiful spring ritual! Nature is filled with many little offerings of beauty and one only needs an open heart/ mind to notice the magic and love spread all around us. You have captured the ‘spirit’ of a delicate ecosystem in an ordinary looking pond and given us a feel for it, with the sounds of its ‘music’ and your loving vivid description of its richness and beauty! Perhaps it will do us all good, to walk more often in nature, simply paying close attention to whatever we come across 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    March 28, 2024 at 6:03 PM

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  2. Nancy Homlitas

    Thank you for sharing your beautifully introspective reflections of the siren songs of the spring peepers. They serenade me during morning or evening walks. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    March 28, 2024 at 8:18 PM

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  3. hitandrun1964

    What a wonderful and uplifting post. Thank you so much and the video was wonderful. I felt what you were saying and was so happy to feel your thoughts.

    Liked by 1 person

    March 28, 2024 at 8:48 PM

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    • stockdalewolfe

      Thank you so very much! I am glad you could feel the joy of it all.

      Like

      March 29, 2024 at 9:08 AM

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  4. daylerogers

    To embrace the small and seemingly insignificant in a song of spring with these tiny creatures is to see the grandeur of the glory of God. A beautiful description of how we miss beauty around us, how we in our ever-purposeful journey to “live” we forget what life is really about. Thank you for sharing such a soul-filled picture of what is beautiful and alive in ways we often miss.

    Liked by 2 people

    March 29, 2024 at 8:49 AM

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    • stockdalewolfe

      Thank you, dear Dayle, for “getting” what I was trying to say. These little creatures touched me so much. A very Happy Easter to you and your family.

      Liked by 1 person

      March 29, 2024 at 9:14 AM

      Reply
  5. Cheyenne MacMasters

    Truly immersive song of life. Thanks for sharing.

    Liked by 1 person

    March 29, 2024 at 10:19 AM

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  6. juliemellersh

    It’s so nice to hear the concert of the Spring Peepers through your ears, especially on Easter weekend. I have heard this song when staying up north in Ontario, without knowing what it was, glad I know now.

    Liked by 1 person

    March 29, 2024 at 11:14 AM

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  7. Adelheid

    Their “music” may be insignificant to others but they are nature’s pride. You have vividly described such a wonderful experience of joy while listening to the Spring Peepers. I guess in this techy world we now live in, most of us have forgotten what it feels like to be in sync with nature which you lovingly enjoy. Thank you for sharing, Ellen.

    Liked by 1 person

    March 31, 2024 at 4:55 PM

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  8. liliessparrowsandgrass

    Oh, Ellen this is such beautiful writing. I am suspended, as John Steinbeck would say, “in that golden emotion between love and longing” … the frogs, the salamanders, the “spring peepers” … they bring us from the “tide pool to the stars”… your writing touches my soul.

    Liked by 1 person

    April 1, 2024 at 12:24 AM

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  9. LoveLifeHappiness&More💙💙

    Wonderful post.

    Liked by 1 person

    April 2, 2024 at 8:03 PM

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  10. LoveLifeHappiness&More💙💙

    You’re most welcome.

    Liked by 1 person

    April 2, 2024 at 9:06 PM

    Reply
  11. tiramit

    This is like a deep, deep inhalation, a huge gulp of the sensory ‘world,’ filled to the brim and a long slow outbreath, turning over all the damp, wet stones, rustling through the old leaves and places where turtles lurk. Wonderful, it returns me to the seasons of the North.

    Liked by 1 person

    April 2, 2024 at 10:22 PM

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    • stockdalewolfe

      I am so glad it resonated for you, Tiramit!!! And that it brought you back to North country. It brings me back to our little barn upstate. Couldn’t do the upkeep now but sure, we miss it. Nature was always a quick link to the spiritual. Thank you for your lovely comment!

      Like

      April 3, 2024 at 10:50 AM

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  12. Dawn

    That’s what I’m hearing!!!? Thank you!

    Liked by 1 person

    April 6, 2024 at 10:17 PM

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  13. Dawn

    Thank you, I do. Wish you could hear them wherever you are.

    Liked by 1 person

    April 6, 2024 at 10:45 PM

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