Watching Bats?
Aug. 23rd, 2008 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerMitsuko and I were out walking the other day, in the evening after work but before dusk really started. We had walked around the back of the school, and were walking down the road beside the rice paddies. The school, with the sun low over it, was to our right, and to our left was the deep green of the rice, with a glimpse of water here and there between the stalks. A wall of bamboo covers the hill behind the paddies.
But it was the air over the rice that caught my attention. Big fat dragonflies hovered and bounced. And over and between them, bats crumpled their way across the sky. Bats fly, but not smoothly like birds, not soaring along. Bats struggle and seem to constantly be on the edge of falling, crawling across the darkening sky on their furry wings, moving forward, falling, and yanking themselves back up again.
At some level, I know that it was just the evening hunt for the insects swarming around the rice paddies. And yet, watching bats struggle across the sky, I want to applaud. They work so hard for their flight in the evening light.
And the funny thing is that while I stood there, watching bats, my wife just waited with a smile. She knows I like the silly things. And she's patient when I stop to look at them.
When we stopped watching the bats, we were lucky enough to have a fine red sunset to enjoy on the last leg of our walk.
Sometimes a walk in the evening can be romantic, even when you're watching bats.
But it was the air over the rice that caught my attention. Big fat dragonflies hovered and bounced. And over and between them, bats crumpled their way across the sky. Bats fly, but not smoothly like birds, not soaring along. Bats struggle and seem to constantly be on the edge of falling, crawling across the darkening sky on their furry wings, moving forward, falling, and yanking themselves back up again.
At some level, I know that it was just the evening hunt for the insects swarming around the rice paddies. And yet, watching bats struggle across the sky, I want to applaud. They work so hard for their flight in the evening light.
And the funny thing is that while I stood there, watching bats, my wife just waited with a smile. She knows I like the silly things. And she's patient when I stop to look at them.
When we stopped watching the bats, we were lucky enough to have a fine red sunset to enjoy on the last leg of our walk.
Sometimes a walk in the evening can be romantic, even when you're watching bats.
