Downloading, uploading, commanding, configuring… I spent the day yesterday working with computers. It is work, I believe, that is worth doing. But it is an incomplete picture of what’s important. In the evening, I pulled up my socks (literally) and tromped into a field to look for bugs.

I was not alone, but in the company of a dozen other naturalists. All of us out on a bug walk. Choosing to use the last of the day’s light to look for the tiniest creatures. The creepers and crawlers. The skitterers, fliers, flappers and pinchers.

If you want to feel better about the world, my unsolicited advice is this: go meet your local naturalists. They know so much about so much. Frog songs and weasel tracks tell us what is happening on and in the earth. The presence and absence of bugs and butterflies are vital keys to bigger stories. Even when the news is dire, there is comfort in being in the company of people who care. Who pay attention, make connections, and take action. Find the folks looking hard at the soil and the sky, and you’ll find yourself in good company.

We spotted milkweed beetles, and great golden digger wasps. I learned about bowl-and-doily spiders, nursery web spiders, and antlions. (Who are, it turns out, Earth’s very own Sarlaccs.) We saw the nests of hog-nosed snakes and field sparrows.

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

Huge thanks to Chelsea Marcantonio for leading the Willow Beach Field Naturalist’s walk, Marina for knowing her sparrows, and Jon Simo for spotting this nest.