The cicadas are coming! That was the headline in many papers a few weeks ago across the country. Big news. The 17-year cycle of the peculiar creatures that emerge from the ground, shed their outer shells and buzz around our patios is upon us. The reason they are news isn’t just that they come every 17 years; it’s that they symbolize the dependability of nature that hasn’t been disrupted by COVID-19 or climate change the way human life has been.

Signs of life abound this spring in Texas after more than a year of pandemic hibernation and then a snow apocalypse that added insult to injury. Many plants, bushes and trees have perished, but green shoots are emerging. A bird has nested with three newborns on the eave of my back porch.

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