Life's Miracles

by Renee Hudgins

“The growth of understanding follows an ascending spiral rather than a straight line.”  Joanna Field

There is a butterfly garden in my backyard.  It was designed specifically to attract butterflies.   Butterflies are rather particular about where they lay their eggs, so if you want to attract butterflies to your backyard, host plants are essential.  Host plants are the plants that the caterpillar or larva stage of the butterfly eats to survive.  I have many host plants such as Butterfly Weed to attract the Monarch and Passion Flower to attract the Variegated and Gulf Fritillaries.  Throw in a lot of flowers for their dining pleasure and come hot weather, the garden is almost constantly aflutter.
 

The entire life cycle of a butterfly is pretty amazing.  The female lays eggs on the appropriate plants.  Each Black Swallowtail, for example, lays about 400 eggs in her adult life span of about one week.  The Black Swallowtail lays eggs on parsley, dill or fennel.   Any and all parsley that I plant is devoured by the resulting caterpillars.  They start off so small that you can barely see them and they spend their entire larva stage on that plant, growing as big as my pinkie finger in about 10 days.  During this stage, they are sitting targets and most don't survive.  Those that do survive begin looking for the perfect place to pupate.  Sometimes one will morph right on the plant, but usually it moves away from its host plant and builds a support for the chrysalis.  It then hangs from the support in a "j" shape until about 24 hours later, when it sheds its caterpillar skin. It remains in the chrysalis for another 7-10 days and then the paper thin shell of the chrysalis splits and a wet and scrunched butterfly emerges.  It literally hangs upside down to dry, allowing the wings to fall into shape.  After a few hours, the newly emerged butterfly flutters away in search of a mate, host plants and a meal.

Most everyone appreciates the beauty of a butterfly, but if you look, you will see that some of the chrysalises are stunning in their beauty and some of the caterpillars are pretty darn cool looking!   The Monarch chrysalis looks like a hand painted  jewel and the Spicebush caterpillar is  quite striking.  Some of the caterpillars have interesting disguise mechanisms that make them look like .. . well, like bird poop!   Others produce an unpleasant oder and display "horns" to scare predators.

It makes you wonder how it all works.  Here are fat, wormy looking creatures that disappear into their own packages and reveal themselves later as delicate, graceful, winged wonders.  And this is just one insect;  one tiny little creature in this vast universe.  Such an elegant design, such a miraculous metamorphosis.  I am absolutely awed by it.  There's a grand plan here and somehow these little butterflies are an intricate part of the plan.  How fortunate to be a part of all of this, to be able to share life with such miracles.  Just look around and you will find such miracles are everywhere.

Comments

[rick roux]

Very beautiful article. I love the butterly as well. I think it can well describe the lightness of being. Discovering the spiritual dimensions within and practicing spiritual development allows one to appreciate how light we truly are.