The Weed and the Butterfly

or Graced by Beauty

In the middle of the day, I was looking at the big weed beside my front walk and thinking that perhaps I should have pulled it out instead of leaving it there for the extra greenery and to see what the flowers would look like. I had often found myself standing beside this weed, noting that it had grown almost as tall as me. So, as I was pondering this again today, a yellow butterfly flew up from it and off to the East, following the west wind. At the time, I thought that it would have been nice if I had been able to take a picture of her. Less than a minute later, a yellow butterfly came flying back towards me, against the wind. I hurried up the front porch stairs to get my cell phone to see if I could get a picture of her, but I had about twenty feet to go before I would reach the wild violets that she had alit upon in the garden. I made it there and crept in slowly with ninja-like stealth, carefully kneeling down beside her to get the first photo, but sadly, her wings were folded. She lifted off and headed for the next flower to her left, a blue hydrangea just starting to bloom, and I inched my way beside her on my knees for the second photo. She uprooted again and headed west, to the next patch of wild violets, where I got the third and final photo.

I never get excited about much of anything, but I was actually so excited about this one little butterfly to the extent that I was tempted to post the photos on the blog right away. I resisted the temptation in order to write this to accompany them. The point of the story is that if I had pulled that weed, the yellow butterfly probably wouldn’t have stopped for a rest and nibble in my garden, and I would not have been "Graced by Beauty". I still, however, do not know why she decided to come back after flying away the first time. One of life’s charming mysteries.