HER BUTTERFLIES

 Our good friend and neighbor has a green thumb which she generously applies

to the plants, the blooms and the flowers in her yard to attract bees and butterflies.

What makes her yard so special to us is not only the beauty of her flowers

but many of the butterflies traveling to her yard…choose to fly through ours.

The other day we were sitting out watching a few of them flutter by

when I thought to myself how alike we are…humans and butterflies.

We‘re both born out of our mothers…we both enter the world rather small

and in no time, like the caterpillar, we, too, begin to crawl.

We crawl, we eat, we crawl some more…our movements at first are slow

but this is how we learn to live…this is how we grow.

We both enter a transition stage…in butterflies it’s called the chrysalis…

It’s where we humans learn to laugh, to cry, to think, to play…to kiss.

Once we emerge from our chrysalis…we find our body rearranged.

The way we look…the way we feel…everything has changed..

Then without giving it a second thought…without even wondering why…

where once we only crawled and ate…we now spread our wings and fly.

If we’re blessed we add beauty to our world

as we land on each flower and blossom and leaf

knowing our time to fly is limited…

knowing our life on Earth is brief.

There are many reasons why we love our friend…

one is that green thumb she applies

which, much to our enjoyment,

puts us in the paths of her butterflies….

Thus giving us the opportunity 

to show her butterflies affection

as they stop to rest in our back yard…

and ask us for directions.