By Scott Shephard
In the Sioux Falls, SD, neighborhood I grew up in there was a house that had a birch tree growing in its front yard. My young friends and I were fascinated by its unusual papery bark, but we were even more fascinated and even horrified by the strange things that dangled from the branches. My introduction to them came when an older bullying kid threw a handful in my face and yelled, “Worms!” I didn’t cry but I’m sure I ran for home. A few years later, I did the same to little Donny S., the easiest one for an unassertive bully like me to annoy with the birch worms
The other morning Deb and I parked near Iron Creek in the Black Hills and, as I stepped out of our truck, the first thing I saw was a birch tree in early bloom.
There were the worms! Unlike the late season brown worms that I experienced as a child, these were mostly green. And because I had my macro lens on the camera, I moved in close and found the fascinating structure you see today.
Oddly, as I write this, I think of 1 Corinthians:
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I was a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 11
Paul writes about love in this beautiful passage, not birch pods. And though I see these with adult eyes and sensibilities, you’ll have to forgive me if I can’t help but seeing them as I did when I was a child. Yes, they are beautiful. And, yes, they are symbols of promise and fertility.
But they still remind me of worms.
Canon R5 1/30 sec f/5.6 400 ISO