When Cute Turns Scary

I always felt lucky when ladybugs landed on me, until….

One day, 30 years ago, I went to the beach in my new soft-yellow iridescent bathing suit, with little tiny pastel flowers on it.

Happy to arrive and start soaking up the sun, ocean air, and waves, I laid out my towel, and took off my clothes.

Just me and my new yellow suit.

Within minutes every ladybug in south Jersey flew in for a landing on my yellow suit.

It was cute when the first three or four arrived.

It started getting scary at numbers forty and forty-one.

As they continued to fly in from what felt like outer space, all my past thoughts of ladybugs as good luck visitors, now felt haunting.

They continued to fly in, from where I don’t know.

I broke down, and went to the bathroom to change out of my new suit.

My nerves settled once I slipped off the radar, once again, of the ladybug community.

They were gone.

What I learned from this experience is that sometimes scarcity or rarity make us like or want something more.

And an abundance of something can lead us to feeling smothered by it.

No matter the object.

It’s easy to favor things that are rare. And be unimpressed with things that are plentiful.

Knowing this helps us balance our desires and aversions.

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This picture reminds me of that day.

And how I’ve gone back to seeing ladybugs as a real treat. It’s especially fun to spot them in their world, like this. It feels like looking into a storybook.

(As long as there aren’t a hundred sticking to my suit).

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Do you have a ladybug story to share?