I’ve made the acquaintance of two frogs in the past week. One is a brass
figurine found on the shelf in the op shop I manage. I didn’t put it out for
sale, so I imagine some poor child is now one frog short after wandering around
the store trailing after mum or dad. The other is a real one, all of 2cm long,
and frozen to the core seeing as I found it in a freezer I was cleaning. Not my
freezer, don’t think he could jump quite that high, and my freezer door’s not
exactly open long enough for such a feat to occur.
We’ve had our fair share of hot weather of late, and the only conclusion
I can come to is that this intrepid little amphibian got a whiff of cool moist
air coming from the chest freezer, launched himself to great heights to pursue
what seemed like a good idea at the time, then landed in the abyss of the
freezer whereupon someone slid the cover shut having missed this incredible
accomplishment.
There are some species of frogs that actually do shut down completely as
temperatures plummet in arctic regions, where the ground and waterways freeze under
a thick mantle of snow and ice. For all intents and purposes they are dead,
frozen solid for months at a time. I’ve had my little fella out of the freezer for
a while now, but I don’t think I’m going to witness a miraculous resurrection
such as happens each Spring as the cycle of life starts anew in those frozen
tracts of land inhabited by the frogs who come back to life as if nothing had happened.
Thanks to naturalists and filmmakers like David Attenborough, we get to see
these amazing miracles of nature, and such is their skill it would be easy to be blasé
and take it all for granted. What a privilege though to be given a window
through which to view our wonderful planet and all its creation.
Have just checked the frog…….no movement. Maybe they're a little closer than when I left them.....maybe not.
Every cell frozen
will there be a jump for joy
when the frog thaws
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