Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Butterflies are Free

Copyright © 2007-2008. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

My brother and his wife gave my son a wonderful butterfly kit to keep him occupied during his surgical recovery. It was fun for him to watch the stages of the American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) type butterflies. They arrived in the mail as caterpillars that mostly ate, then they finally changed into an inactive pupal stage...

...that we moved into the larger 'Insect Pavilion'.

Finally the creatures metamorphosed into little butterflies.

My son fed them sugar water on cottonballs, flowers and fruit while he observed them.

He released two per day until they were all free.

It really was a lot of fun.


And I must say the parallels between the butterfly's metamorphosis and my son’s spinal healing was not lost on any of us; even my son.

Yesterday was his first day back to school. I am still on my guard, of course, but also very grateful and relieved. Thanks again to all of you for your kind words and good wishes.



“Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou.” Chang Tao-ling


Copyright © 2007-2008. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.