As a student in the Oklahoma Master Naturalist program,
I was encouraged to purchase a “hand lens”
to have in my backpack when I’m on nature walks.
It felt like an indulgence,
but I ordered one.
It is a “10x triple loupe folding magnifier.”
“Triple” is the key word;
it means there are three layers of glass
in this tiny tool.
It’s small but mighty.
It was not an indulgence after all.
You hold it to your eye,
then lower your eye all the way down to the object you want to see
until you have a clear view.
And then you see amazing things
you could not have seen with the naked eye.
A simple pink prairie flower
looks like a complex orchard
when you can see all its infinitesimal parts.
After dinner with one of our recent guests
we took turns looking through the loupe
at a “Turtle Rock,”
one of the white rocks
after which our retreat center is named.
These rocks are scattered on the hill across from the big pond,
remnants of one of the times when this prairie
was covered with sea water;
when, some 10,000 years ago,
the waters receded and left mud flats
that dried and curled,
forming a sort of turtle’s back.
With the magnifier
we could see tiny pieces of quartz-like particles
inside dark crevices.
It’s like discovering something new
about something or someone
you thought you knew;
something that was there all the time
and you never noticed before.
This tiny tool
helps us get to know
the neighborhood better.
