Have you ever watched a butterfly emerge from it's cocoon? I sometimes see that happen with Monarch butterflies at our cottage in lake country. These yellow, white and black caterpillars eat milk-weed like crazy and then form a rather webby cocoon that changes into an inert looking green chrysalis. Ten days later, out it comes as a wet soggy bug. It sits there and it's wings gradually pump up and unfurl. It is now a gorgeous orange creature that flies! What a wonderful inspiring process and what a story of resilience! It starts out as one thing and becomes something very different but wonderful. The caterpillars eat a plant that is hard to consume and is quite toxic to many creatures but that same poison in the milk-weed makes those butterflies kind of toxic to birds that wants to eat them. They display their lovely bright colors as a warning to predators and basically announce to the world that they are tough little survivors.
One of my dreams is to follow the migrating monarchs from Canada to Mexico where some of the them over winter. They can fly 3,000 miles to exactly the same tree where previous generations overwintered. There is one of these spots pretty close to an international Girl Guide and Girl Scout center and some of my Guiding friends have gone to see this magical spot. One lady told me about her experiences in Mexico. She said the walk up the trail into the forest is fairly difficult but she though that if you take your time, even with a cane, you can eventually get up to where thousands of butterflies are located.
When I get tired of walking, or going up the stairs I sometimes think that there is no point in doing all this work and rehabilitation with so little return. Then I picture that caterpillar chomping away on milkweed and the miracle of the chrysalis followed by that 3,000 mile journey.
Someday ... I am going to follow them from my cottage and walk up that forest trail in Mexico to see a miracle of nature.
Below is a short award winning video featuring the inspiring Nick Vujicic. I hope you enjoy The Butterfly Circus.
2 comments:
I thought I was brave until I saw Nick jump into the water.
You are an inspiration, Linda, and the movie really demonstrates how we sometimes see ourselves as others see us and if they look upon us in a negative way, we feel inferior. It only takes someone like Mendez to show us the beauty within ourselves before we realize our true potential.
Post a Comment