How I admire a creature with the innate ability to not transcend or forget its once caterpillar-self, but honor it and using that stage of its life to prepare for the grandest performance of its life. Here I BE, honored and ever-grateful to witness it all unfold over and over again. Awe-inspired as to how this never grows old for me.
Yes, it is December 4th, when most of the Northern hemisphere is under winterfication (yeah, I just made that up). Yet here I BE, finding myself in the midst of My Secret life with the Secret Life of Butterflies, and in these moments it is enough. Enough to spontaneously starve all my striving, stressing, hoping, praying or wishing to experience a different moment other than the one I'm having. There is only 'I', BEing.
How I admire a creature with the innate ability to not transcend or forget its once caterpillar-self, but honor it and using that stage of its life to prepare for the grandest performance of its life. Here I BE, honored and ever-grateful to witness it all unfold over and over again. Awe-inspired as to how this never grows old for me.
0 Comments
Excerpts from The Spirit of Butterflies: Myth, Magic and Art. Some powerful stuff! http://spiritofbutterflies.com/butterflies-and-the-holocaust/ I had to remove these Monarch and Queen chrysalids from our smaller habitat on the porch. I woke up on Monday to find fire ants feasting on 3 caterpillars and had actually eaten into a chrysalid...ugh. Sooo, these are getting re-strung and attached to the larger indoor habitat to have a chance to successfully grow and emerge. Sometimes that's what it takes... Spotted our first female Monarch of the season, depositing eggs last weekend. Today I retrieved 13 caterpillars from our Milkweed. Pretty good for our first batch of the year. Looking forward to another beautiful, butterfly season. The clip below is from last year. Didn't hear till late, that we were having frost warnings. "Oh no, my herbs", I thought. I debated on going out to cover them, but I couldn't bring myself to brave the cold. My herb-planter is just outside my window, so I looked out at them, sent them some well-wishes, blessings and called it a night. There was frost on the front yard and our van this morning. In fact, I had to pour warm water on the front windshield to remove it. However, checked our delicate herbs, and "YES"; Jack Frost passed them by. Thanks, Jack! ;-) Meanwhile, I noticed this morning we've got buds on our Orchids! I spotted a unique, Praying Mantis on our front porch last week. I noticed he was facing the smaller habitat where I had a few caterpillars and a Monarch, but he couldn't get in it to feast. By Saturday I found him dead on the ledge. Not too long after I began creating with the elements of naturally-expired creatures, I found that many began coming to me just before they were 'to pass'. Like they want me to notice and acknowledge their presence before they offer-up their "parts" to me, to use...and so I do. What I don't use of their remains, I make every effort to give them a proper burial, by thanking their essence and returning their bodies to the Earth. Here he is pictured scaling the pillar. He looks small from this angle... I find it easier to bring my potted plants of Milkweed into our mobile butterfly habitat, because obviously, the leaves (which they eat) stay fresh; instead of having to snip stems of Milkweed and sticking them in floral picks. The consequence of bringing in the whole pot is, the caterpillars like to chrysalid on the rims of the pot. Once they've devoured all the leaves, I like to get the plants back outside so they can regrow. I gently remove any chrysalids on the rims, reattach them to a stick and place them back into the indoor habitat. Well, yesterday we had a busy day and I forgot to reattach a few Chrysalids. To my lovely surprise, this morning I looked on the kitchen counter and saw that two Monarchs had emerged from their chysalid in the small dish they were laying in. One was hanging from my Himalayan-salt candle holder (shown above), and the other was sitting upright, on a cloth. What truly amazes me is 1) being cold-blooded, they need warmth (generally obtained from the sun), to get them moving inside, to emerge. 2) in their hanging position, the weight of gravity is what helps them to emerge so gracefully and allows their wings to remain straight while they fill with fluid and then dry. Hmmm, I could not tell you how many times I've found butterflies having emerged from their hanging chrysalids, have fallen down and their wings saturated (with the fluids they expel). I have also found them fallen, with their wings all folded in on themselves; having dried in that position they will not survive, because they will not be able to fly. Yet these two Monarchs managed to beat the odds regardless of their seemingly non- supportive, external circumstances (their wings were still wet), but both beautifully intact. Like it was no big deal to them. :-) Simply phenomenal to me. Indeed, WE are no less phenomenal in using our will to Fully LIVE...no matter how dire circumstances may appear to be on the surface. These moments are called miracles. BE the miracle! Update: After blogging this, I noticed the only evidence that these two had emerged is one empty chrysalid-shell. No fluid stains (which are brownish-red), to be found...anywhere. |