This praying mantis was sitting on the railing of my deck as I was coming in from picking peppers in my garden. What a nice surprise, I thought. I have always associated mantids with good fortune. As I looked closer, I noticed that this one had an engorged abdomen and appeared to be ready to birth a giant-ass egg sack.

I can’t wait until next spring, when the little ones appear and eat all the other insects and spiders. Maybe that’s weird for a vegetarian to admit, but it’s true. This is one of those things that gives me hope about the coming autumn and winter.

Even though things wither and die as the days grow colder, like the poor little unwed mother praying mantis, I know that in that egg sack little critters are quietly awaiting the spring and will slowly mature until they burst forth to eat all the darned spiders, who are probably just as fertile and ready to lay eggs right now.

Whatever gives us the hope it takes to push through the cold weather and emerge on the other side of the cold is worth latching onto. For me, it’s the arrival of mantis season and the hope of no spiders.