A New Way of Looking

Halloween is getting closer, the sun is setting earlier and the darkness looks brighter. Yes brighter. As I was observing my now naked mystery tree during the day I wondered how it would look in the dark now that it's branches were bald. Challenge accepted, I decided to observe in the dark with a flashlight in hand. I began to observe however I myself was cautious doing it. Soon I began to "Trip myself out" in which I think many of you know what I mean by but I mean that every single little noise I heard had me on my toes ready to run! The branches were scary looking as if  they were extra arms to come get me. The apples on the ground suddenly became my enemy. I couldn't see them so I would step on them and almost trip. I automatically saw myself  in a scary movie, where something or someone would pop out of no where form the corner (which is the darkest spot in my backyard) and chase me! Of course I would trip on an apple right before getting to my door and that would be the end of me. Ignoring that feeling I had I continued. The branches moving in the wind were like two male deer fighting, there horns fiercely moving up, down, left, right and any other way possible to defend themselves. The noise they made while moving sounded as if they were nails against a chalk board,as if is was broken record repeating my name, almost blaming me.

"The Naked branches seemed scary in the dark and reminded me
deer horns" Field-notes 10/18

Scary right? However I also found that there was much to be discovered in the dark too. Looking at the hole in my tree with my flashlight I discovered that  Ms. Farias was right when she said that earwigs come out at night. There was many of these near the spider web in the hole of my tree and there was many on the ground too. Now I don't think these creatures are physically attractive but they do seem interesting. 

(Picture from " Ring-Legged Earwig ; Euborellia annulipes")

From the same page of where I got the picture on top I discovered that these creatures appear to be scary(especially at night ) but truly are nice little bugs who raise their own family like any another specie  would too.  They mainly feed off of dead or living insects or mosses. During the day, my mystery tree and the earwigs aren't so scary. However now that I see how the dark can change my opinion on them , I have found a new way of looking at things. Just because they seem ugly or scary in the dark doesn't mean they truly are. Just because a problem seems to be the end of the world today doesn't mean it will be tomorrow. When there's a problem, a situation or something in general I don't like I will use my flash light and show some light in there to make the dark brighter.

Work Cited

"Ring-Legged Earwing; Euborellia Annulipes." Ninnescah Life.                          N.p. 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.