Butterfly Kisses
And a bug invasion
In the almost eight years that I’ve been living here on the Great Plains of Turtle Island I have learned that every year in early October the town in which I live goes through a bug invasion. I look forward to it each year because it is truly joyful…
It is an invasion of butterflies! Many of them are Monarchs headed for Mexico. Our town is a rest stop fueling station for their long journey. There are plenty of late summer and early fall flowers blooming and plenty of weeds that Monarchs like. I’ve seen literally gazillions of them on the three walks I’ve taken so far today.
It is so profoundly exhilarating!
A few days ago I talked to one of my BFFs who lives on two acres a couple of hundred miles to the east of me. At age 75 she no longer does as much gardening as she used to — especially after her stroke. She still tends her tomatoes and assorted other veggies but she hires a neighbor to mow the rest of her property.
On a corner of her property there is a big patch of milkweed. The neighbor was about to mow it down when she ran outside waving her hands for him to stop.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “I can get rid of these weeds by mowing them down or spraying Roundup.”
“No! No! No!” she yelled. “Milkweed is the favorite food of Monarch butterflies. Don’t touch this patch of weeds, either by mowing them down or applying toxic chemicals! Please just leave them alone.”
So the neighbor left them alone and over the years the weeds, as weeds are prone to do, grew. In our phone conversation my BFF told me about how last week she went outside to stare at that patch of milkweed. She told me that there were literally gazillions of Monarch butterflies hovering over that patch of weeds. They hovered then flew down to land on some milkweed and feast then hovered some more. Back and forth, it was a monarch invasion. She told me that it was a mystical experience watching all those butterflies.
Earlier this year my daughter took her daughters (my beloved granddaughters) to a big-city zoo a few hundreds miles to the east. This zoo happened to have a live butterfly enclosure. The two little girls were allowed into the enclosure and were told that if they held out their arms and remained as still and motionless as they could that butterflies would land on their arms.
I asked my oldest granddaughter about it and she said, “Grandpa, it was so awesome! I tried to stay as motionless as I could and sure enough a bunch of butterflies landed on my arms. It was hard to be still because their little tiny feet as they crawled over my arms tickled me and the air from their flapping wings also tickled me. But it was so cool!”
“What about you?” I asked the youngest granddaughter.
Before she could answer the oldest granddaughter replied with much laughter, “A butterfly landed on her face!”
The younger granddaughter spoke, “It landed right on my cheek and it tickled so much I had to wave it away.”
I then took my youngest granddaughter’s hand and held it up to my face. I put my face down to her hand and fluttered my eyelashes against the back of her hand.
She giggled.
“Do you know what that is?” I asked her.
“Yeah! Of course! It’s a butterfly kiss! Our mommy gives us those all the time.”
I was overcome with love and joy. Back when their mommy was just a wee tiny girl I used to give her butterfly kisses all the time.
It was good to know that butterfly kisses continue through succeeding generations.
I prayed that actual butterflies would also succeed in existing for generations to come. Our children and grandchildren and their grandchildren need them to.
Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.
Speaking of nature…