In Praise of the Small

We get caught up in the large, the impressive and the obvious.  Unlike children, we no longer look at the small life around us, no matter how beautiful.   As a kid, I used to collect butterflies and moths, generally by murdering them.  I pursued them, galloping across fields with a butterfly net.   Now that I've been a hidebound adult for many years, digital cameras make it easy to really see and capture the beauty of the small.  This Painted Lady butterfly (at the top) was on a zinnia flower in my in-law's yard.

  
I've never been a big fan of bees - I've been stung too many times - but their industriousness has to be admired and in their own fashion, they are attractive.  This bee was in gardens we visited in Kentucky.   It seemed that Kentucky bees were bigger than Minnesota bees,  an unscientic observation.

This is a Hummingbird Moth working a thistle flower in Forestville State Park in southern Minnesota.   Thistles are seen as a noxious weed but they are an insect magnet.   I don't think of moths as hanging out in the day but this one did.

This is a Checkerspot butterfly on a trail in Waterton Park in Canada on the other side of the border from the United States' Glacier National Park.   This doesn't show the mountains, also pretty.

I found this beetle on a dirty window of our car at my orchard in Wisconsin, which crawls with insects. This fellow was not a knock-down comely as the preceding insects but was plenty small and handsome in his own way.   Just as smelling the roses is praiseworthy, enjoying the little life around us broadens our horizons.  I'm convinced that observing them is good for what ails us.