Hickory Horned Devil

Bless my soul, when Lauren called and excitedly asked when I'd be home...she had something to show me...I asked if it had come in the mail.  Money, it thought!  Another scholarship!  When I got home, I got a greater gift.  It was not money, it was this:

Nearly filling the length of a Ball Jar, Lauren held up at five inch caterpillar.  She had already researched it and found it to be a Hickory Horned Devil, destined to become a Regal Moth.  "Science project!" I said.  But no, it must bury itself in the ground to undergo metamorphosis.

Gift, you may ask?  This five inch worm is a confirmation of all that I've worked for in the past nineteen years. My daughter, working a horse, looked down and found something interesting and that she did not know about.  She took it as a sample, researched it, and let it go.  But before letting it go, she taught others.

It wasn't poisonous, not something to fear, but to learn about.

Learning and growing for the pure joy of learning and sharing with others.  Isn't that what education is all about?  So I've done my job:  she's learned the lesson.  She's now a high school graduate but will learn forever.

Notes:
My friend, Christine, called on her cell phone in my driveway to come out and see the baby turtle she'd found.  The baby turned out to be a snapping turtle, and though tiny, already looked vicious.

What we didn't have for dinner last night.