Ladybug Day

Ladybugs bring good luck and carry our wishes out into the world to be fulfilled. Or so the story goes. Maybe it's because they're attractive and eat plant-destroying aphids that they're such a popular, fabled insect. This past summer I saw only one ladybug the entire season. Only one! And believe me, I was looking. I always enjoy their appearance and confess to making wishes on them whenever I see them. (More magical thinking. But hey, that's me.) When summer came and went and I'd only spotted one ladybug, I thought there must have been some blight on these benign bugs. Fortunately, I was wrong.
Yesterday, as I sat right here at my computer, I began to fret about the usual things I fret about, followed by the usual prayers and wishes to make everything right. Just as I was finding the perfect words for a brand new wish, I happened to glance over at my study window, which overlooks our back garden, and saw several ladybugs clustered on the window pane. More ladybugs kept arriving as I watched. Suddenly I saw more of them on my window pane then I see in an average summer! It was a mild, Indian summer day, and maybe they were gathering together to nest for their winter hibernation. Or maybe they had all come out of early hibernation because of the sudden warm weather. Whatever the reason, there were ladybugs galore.
Being prone as I am to seeing signs in almost every mundane little event that comes my way, the timing of their appearance lifted my spirits, of course. I took their timely arrival to mean that my wish would be granted. As if that were not enough to satisfy me, I jumped up and grabbed my tarot/totem cards. (It's a tarot deck with a picture of a different animal totem on each card.) I wanted to know if my just-wished wish would come true. (I know, I know. How many wish-granting signs and portents does one need?) Nonetheless, I was feeling connected to whatever was going on around me, and pulled a card. It was the 9 of cups, traditionally known as the wish card, and the creature depicted on the card was the ladybug. The words inscribed at the bottom stated "wish fulfilled." Nice, eh?
A little while later I went for a walk in my lovely, leafy neighbourhood. I was surrounded by red and yellow everywhere, and not just because of the turning leaves. Dozens of ladybugs flew all around and crawled over tree trunks and city walls. I'd seen hundreds of them by the time I finished my perambulations a couple of hours later. Even without my propensities for wishful thinking, the experience was a memorable one. It was something I don't see everyday.
A few hours later, with the delightful ladybug episode fresh in my mind, I met a friend for dinner. As she spoke of her recent travels, and places she's planning to go next, I kept remembering the not-so-ordinary day I'd had right in my own backyard. I haven't been anywhere for quite a while, and unless there's an unforeseen twist of fate coming my way, I won't be going anywhere very soon, either. I could easily have fallen into longing and dissatisfaction if I hadn't just had my ladybug day.
Well, as I sit at my computer a scant 24 hours later, I can see the ladybugs have gone. But my good mood hasn't. Of course I don't really know if my wish will come to pass. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I feel more light of heart than if the ladybugs had never made an appearance. And yes, I can just see magically-challenged people roll their eyes at my ostensibly naive and childish survival mechanisms. So it is with as much good humour as I can muster - and right now that's a fair bit - that I offer all the nay-sayers of this world a big, fat, juicy raspberry. Yum.
- G. P.