After being underground for so long, it’s little wonder that the first thing the little fellows want to do is sing! And what a song it is! Cicadas are known for their loud voices, a result of male cicadas trying their buggy best to get the attention of a lady or two.
We’ve all been there, right?
After the mom and dad cicadas get together, mom lays eggs, and after hatching the cicada nymphs fall from the trees to burrow into the ground to wait another seventeen years to start the process over again.
Brood X (that’s actually “Brood Ten,” because cicadas love Roman numerals!) has been waiting a long time to emerge and live its best life. Scientists think the reason behind the strange and patient behavior of the cicada is it’s a coping mechanism to help them avoid predators like praying mantises.
Facing Our Challenges
It’s gotten me thinking about all the ways we cope with our own predators, the fears, the circumstances that keep us down, buried in the ground. While digging a hole works for the cicada, it doesn’t real work for us, not in the long run. Hiding from our problems is rarely a solution.
Writing for Psychology Today, Dr. Jennifer Kunst offers seven strategies for facing life’s challenges. I really appreciate her first two suggestions.
Number One, Kunst writes, should be to “Turn Toward Reality.” Like cicadas, we sometimes run away from life. Avoiding difficulties can appear to be a useful solution sometimes, but it rarely results in a lasting impact. We’d be much better off, instead, to accept life as it is, warts and mantises and all.
By facing these challenges, we gain confidence in our ability to persevere. Suddenly, problems don’t seem so bad, or so many.
Kunst’s second strategy is to “Embrace Your Life as It Is Rather Than as You Wish It to Be.” She explains there’s a grace and happiness that we can find when we welcome all of life—ups and downs, celebrations and tragedies—and embrace it.
Embracing Life, and Making it Something to Embrace
At Total Life Changes, we might add an edge to this suggestion. While it’s important to embrace our lives, we have some control over what that life looks like. We can look for a more fulfilling job. We can change our diet to something healthier. We can offer our time, talents, and treasures in a more charitable way. We can set goals for the business and personal spaces in our lives. In other words, we can do the work to make our lives different while still celebrating them for what they are.
Seventeen years is a long time to spend waiting for the danger to pass. Let’s face our fears so we can live our lives, rather than burrow our light away from the world. Let’s control what we can and acknowledge that we can’t control it all.
Having done that, maybe then, like the cicadas, we’ll know it’s time to sing.
Jack
