Grasshopper

I walked out to my car last week to go to lunch and noticed a very large grasshopper on the ground near my car tire. It's body was a soft greenish grey. It's legs were covered in moss green and grey stripes. A very worthy grasshopper. I tried to nudge it away from my tire so as not to squish it when leaving then I noticed a second grasshopper! Twice as lovely as the first and even larger. This one was soft grey with grey and dusty pink stripes on it's legs, something I had not seen before. So I stooped and looked at these two delicate creatures for a brief time and wondered at their visiting me.

Needing all the optomism I can get these days I looked up the symbolic meanings for grasshopper to enliven meaning this day. God Bless this meaning.

Among the Chinese, the grasshopper came to symbolize flourishing descendants and hence abundance as well.

In ancient Greece, the nobility wore golden grasshoppers in their hair, possibly because the grasshopper's fertility made it a symbol of abundance. The grasshopper's song during the day and its silence during the night made it an attribute of Apollo the sun god and the kind of friend or helper who makes a lot of noise but disappears when help is needed. In China, the grasshopper paired with a chrysanthemum indicated high office. For Christians, the locust became another symbol of Christ's resurrection or rebirth because it sheds its carapace. St. John the Baptist came eating locusts and wild honey as was permitted by Levitical law (Lev 11:22; Mt 3:4; Mk 1:6).

Joseph Campbell said, We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

The Flaming Grasshopper, a blog for the Chelsea Green publishing company (specializing in sustainable living), describes the grasshopper as representing potent life energy contained in a small “insignificant” exoskeletal package, capable of covering great distances in a single leap. It is also an ancient symbol of good luck.

This website was the best part of my find.


Renee'