Bullfrogs

Bullfrogs: 

it's such a familiar sound to me, hearing the croak of bullfrogs through the summer months, most especially during my predawn walk when their calling is more active and their signature chorus accompanies me around the pond and into the woods as I follow along side the streams. Yet it's seldom that I ever see one, just occasionally catching a quick hop as they return to water from the corner of my eye. I love their presence though, their call echoing through the woods, reminding me that there's so much existing right on the edge of my senses, creatures heard in background of my early walks, familiar, but largely unknown, remaining mostly mystery. 

the American bullfrog has been heard throughout my entire life, a constant presence, and yet without a bit of mindful attention, almost forgotten in their familiarity. If anyone lives near a body of water they know their sound well, it's part of the very fabric of summer, constant as the humid nights. Their call has blended into the season, belonging to the deep ecosystem of our listening. 

bullfrogs offer a chorus song of our own connection.

bullfrogs have a voracious appetite and will consume just about anything they're able to catch, with a surprising variety of small animals consumed. As well they're an essential food source for many birds and mammals, belonging fully to the process of life in its constant trade of energy.  This is deep ecology, a landscape of seamless connection, soul, and we're part of this system too, as essential as every other aspect found. We will eventually return to land, earth stuff, our present particles mingling once more with this deep ecology. Bullfrogs offer me a reminder of my true value, that I am essential here, integral to the landscape by virtue of existence. 

such a familiar sound, a chorus of croaks traded back and forth...

an echo of my own belonging.

~

Peace, Eric