Something caught my eye last night as I turned into my apartment complex. I was driving home from ‘helping a friend move’, which ended up just being eating popsicles with friends, and it was late when I returned. I’m not sure where the moon is in her cycle right now, so it was dark, and since the fireflies have been dwindling lately, even they were calm.

Then there she was, illuminated in the lamplight, a giant dark flyer against the blanket of beams. Maybe a Cecropia Moth, or an Imperial, I wasn’t close enough to tell.

And she was frantically trying to reach the source, although she seemed capped at her present height.

We’ve all seen beetles and moths swarming the porchlight at night. And there’s been a time when I remembered why they engage in this seemingly futile pursuit. But I don’t right now, and it’s not the point anyway.

She was all alone in the beam, or she at least was the star, because she was all I saw. And it made me think to myself, about the things we set ourselves towards, and fight for, and goals we accept without questioning.

And on the other side of that I thought about her perseverance, her unquestioning dedication to the task at hand. And about how at the same moment that the stresses and to-do lists of my life feel heavy on my shoulders, somewhere, everywhere, a Cecropia Moth is consumed with her all encompassing desire to reach the light.