Embraced by Butterflies

My butterfly bushes attract many
winged summer beauties.

For some reason, I have always found comfort in butterflies. They are graceful, beautiful, gentle, quiet, and they can fly. They are nourished by the nectar of vibrant blossoms. They hydrate from glistening drops of morning dew caught in the veins of curled leaves. Sounds mystical, doesn't it?

Butterflies are why I believe fairies are real. They start out as caterpillars and then morph into what we call butterflies. However, when you anthropomorphize these elegant creatures, you indeed have fairies. 

My butterfly dangling
from the rearview mirror.

Their mystical, calming attributes are why I have one hanging in my car. Growing up Italian Catholic, of course I was raised to dangle a blessed medal of a saint from my rearview mirror. But when my dad became terminally ill five years ago, it was a butterfly necklace that jumped out at me in the checkout aisle of a superstore. I've had the chain with the silvery butterfly hanging in my car ever since that emotionally impulsive buy. I don't know if the metal butterfly keeps us safe when we travel, but it certainly has coaxed a smile or two out of my face.

An affinity for butterflies was something my parents' dog, Stout, shared with me. I will miss sitting in the yard with Stout, watching the winged insects capture her attention as they moved from flower to flower. She never chased them, as other pets we've had would do. Rather, she studied them, as if she were a bird in a former life and was trying to relearn how to fly.

It was difficult to resist sitting down
and working on this puzzle.

Butterflies easily capture my attention wherever I go, as well. When I finally had my first mammogram, butterfly magnets brightened and warmed the otherwise clinical, cold room. When Hubby and I attended a workshop on Alzheimer's recently, the first thing I noticed was an incomplete butterfly puzzle on a table in the corner of the room. When I sit on my porch in the afternoon with a cup of tea, it is the butterflies fluttering about that draw my attention.

I'm seriously considering attending a fairy door art class. If fairies are indeed just butterflies; and if fairy doors do indeed attract fairies; then it stands to reason that fairy doors actually attract butterflies. 

Micki Bare, mother of three, wife, daughter & writer is the author of Thurston T. Turtle children's books. 

Email: mickibare (at) gmail.com

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