Most who know me well, know it isn’t difficult for me to find a story in almost anything.
For example, do you see this butterfly gliding through the air? Colorful, isn’t it?
A closer look, however, will tell you it actually is floating on the surface of our pool. I have no idea how long it had been there. Joyce said she had seen it previously as well…on the water.
You never know when you might need a picture of a colorful, dead butterfly, so I “snapped” a couple of images and thought nothing more of it.
A bit later, after Joyce and I had been in the pool a while, the aforementioned butterfly floated past. I mentioned to Joyce. “What if it’s not dead?”
I examined it closely and noticed no signs of life. To be sure, I dipped it out of the water and carefully placed it on the stones surrounding the pool. Its tiny wings fluttered ever so slightly. Then it slowly lifted a wing… and a breeze blew it over, and its tiny legs were going much like an upside down turtle.
What to do? I put a finger near its struggling wee legs, and it crawled up on my finger. But a simple breeze would still blow it over. I let it hang on to my finger.
We couldn’t just abandon our new friend, but we could see the poolside stones were not a good place for its recovery. Joyce suggested putting it on one of our many plants. I climbed out of the pool, careful to keep our newly rescued friend out of gusty breezes and I placed it on the underside (to protect it from the breezes) of a leaf of a nearby plant, a perennial hibiscus to be precise. We felt like it just needed a chance to dry out.
I don’t know if I mentioned it or not. A few decades ago, Joyce and I both took Advanced First Aid so we could help with the local volunteer ambulance service. I think some of our training was helpful.
Later, when I checked on our rescued butterfly, he was still there under the leaf getting his wings dried out. I checked again a bit later, and it had moved out on the stem of the leaf and then a bit later… it was gone.
Now I know everyone, especially in this day and age, needs to hear stories with happy endings. I want to tell you that I watched it flap its little wings and lift off, but that would not be true, and my Mom raised me better than that.
I did look in and around the plant and on the ground and did not see any evidence of further potential tragedies.
Personally, I think its little wings gradually dried out, and then it just went on its way.
Joyce and I are to live happily ever after knowing we have done a good deed.