It's a shame this one didn't survive. Caterpillars, coccoons and these delicate winged things have been bursting forth from the milkweed stems. Green-pronged leaves have been feasted upon, leaving only brittle bones and tomorrow's leaves waiting in soft pricks of yellow green. I watched a cocoon split open, and a new monarch with gilded orange wings crawl out. Then I noticed this one (in the photograph above) which was sitting on a low branch near the ground. The other butterfly's wings gave tentative flicks and finally became firm wings, but this one's wings never seemed to find that state.
It was still there in the evening, though it had valiently crawled a few feet away to a different plant. Now it's thanksgiving, and we're about to go feast and celebrate and smile, and I'm second-guessing the importance of explaining to you two about the brief existence of this small creature.
I'm writing this after reading what vyn has written about grad school and staying aware of the overall goal and purpose of her life. I have many emotions about the decisions and mindsets which I am constantly allowed to choose for myself. I've been talking a lot with my younger brother lately, who feels he's been putting his life on fast-forward since he was younger and now can't figure out how to start living in the present again.
Watching this butterfly is important to me because it is a simple act of experiencing and responding to the world. It's wings are beautiful, and a lot of effort and circumstances took place to allow this butterfly to exist. I feel connected to it- calm, delighted- alive.
Ultimately, in spite of all the confusion, bitterness and sorrow we find in this world, we are still just creatures on the planet, trying to survive and sharing the world with the forces of life and nature around us. The butterfly- it is enough.
Wonderful news of Cage and Savannah...
I miss you both, and crave the comforts of being near people who take time to find and create beauty, and live compassionately. But being reminded that you two are out there in the world, doing and sharing and experiencing brings a smile to my face and ease to my soul. :)
1 comment:
thanks for that picture of the butter no-fly. you don't often see them coming out of the cocoon and so catching that moment of their wings' softness is really somehow intimately magical.
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