Chasing June Bugs

Chasing June bugs has not turned out to be as much fun as I had hoped it would. For the last two weeks I have been trying to save my garden from a constant attack of these leaf hungry varmints. For some reason, June bugs really like eggplant leaves. Their second favorite seem to be either cucumber or zucchini. But even then, they prefer the eggplant 10 to 1.

Where are they all coming from?! In one day, I easily picked fifty bugs off my plants. Each day I pick at least another twenty to twenty-five minimal. I've been saving each and every one. I'm collecting them to make June bug soup. I'll spray the solution on the plants and it is supposed to keep away any future June bugs. No one wants to hang around their dead counterparts.

This is all part of my ever increasing learning curve of trying to be self-sufficient in the gardening arena. One day I'd really like to have a small farm and grow as many vegetables as possible. As I was picking off all the little buggers, I tried to imagine what this would be like on a large scale. I'm sure that explains the need for a big tractor with all kinds of cool attachments that will plow, till, harvest, and even spray things like pesticides. It also makes it sound a lot like work instead of some idealistic dream of scratching your Green Acres itch.

I guess it's all part of the list of never-ending metaphors that come along to help us understand what life is supposed to be like, even life on a faith journey. There will be the normal bug infestations that must be dealt with. Real life, and real faith, requires work. But even though it's work does not mean it can't be enjoyable and fulfilling. Life on this side of death will never be absolutely perfect, though I believe it becomes closer to being so each day, as do we.

Maybe they aren't metaphors at all. Maybe we are seeing the real thing, real life itself. Maybe the utopian ideal is right before us if we will just live in contentment, dealing with each circumstance as it comes along and not perceiving everything as a hindrance or test. Maybe this IS what chasing June bugs is supposed to be like. Just a thought.