Watching and Waiting for the Miracle

I've been keeping my eye on a miracle in progress at the front of the hedge in our yard. We found a whole bunch of monarch caterpillars feasting on milkweed at the end of August. And you know where things go from there. :-)

So every morning, and every day when I get home from work, and every evening, I have been checking on the chrysalis that was green and opaque (but with a lovely golden zipper!) up until about Monday morning, when it began to darken and we could see actual WINGS inside. Guess what: something awesome was getting ready to happen!

The story of the monarch butterfly is an amazing one. You know that butterflies don't usually have very long life spans. However, the monarchs born at this time of year are a special generation, called the Methuselah Generation, that lives much longer.

These are the butterflies that make the long journey south to Mexico, where they will spend the winter. A whole different group of monarchs, their progeny, will make the return trip north in the spring. The whole thing is a miracle from start to finish.

This was the last glimpse I had of our wonderful chrysalis on this morning before I went to work. About a half-hour after I left, according to my husband (who was assigned monarch watching and guarding duties in my absence), the brand new butterfly emerged from the chrysalis and took its first look around.

The newly minted butterfly moved slowly to the edge of the leaf. It sat in the sun and the wind, testing and drying its brand-new wings. (For up until recently, it had been a crawling bug, not a flying one!)

It looked like it was heading for a spider web, and I had warned my husband about how it would not be able to defend itself at this stage. Worried, he brushed the web away, startling the butterfly in the process and sending it on its first flight of about 50 to 100 feet in a circle. Then it landed in a tree in the middle of the hedge.

It sat there for over an hour, drying its wings, which were the brightest, cleanest orange you have ever seen, almost shimmering or shining! In the early afternoon, it circled back to where it was born and gave its chrysalis one last look.

It ate for half an hour from the brand new purple plant I bought for it. Oh my, what a wonderful first meal! (You may see another butterfly feasting on the purple Agastache in this earlier blip).

And then, with one last long look back at its home, it flew straight up into the sky and disappeared! Hooray! *teary-eyes; lump-in-throat* My husband wished the new monarch good luck and admonished it to be careful. He told me he named it Lucky: Lucky, the Butterfly. :-)

I am sorry to have missed seeing the final, most glorious part of the show with my own eyes, but as I mentioned, I had to work. I did get full reports from time to time via telephone from my husband.

He also took a few pictures with the iPad (which I'm trying to figure out how to transfer to my Mac - I should have just left him my camera, I guess, but I never go anywhere without it!). I am sorry I do not have a photo of our glorious new butterfly to show you today, but it looks a lot like this one (although I do not know the gender of ours).

So here is a blip to celebrate the miracle that I watched and waited and longed for, and that eventually did happen. The butterfly emerged, absolutely beautiful, and flew high into the blue skies on a very hot, summer-like day. I imagine it is winging its way to Mexico even as I speak. Go well, dear one! Take care! Bon voyage!

The song (yes, I know I've used it before, but it seemed especially fitting for this day): Sarah McLachlan, with Ordinary Miracle.