A Story of Love and Courage -

Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia, I saw a water puddle on the path ahead. I decided to angle my direction to go around it, onto the part of the path that wasn’t covered by water and mud. As I reached the puddle, I was suddenly attacked by a butterfly! I did nothing because the attack was so unpredictable and from a source so totally unexpected.

I was startled, as well as unhurt, despite having been struck four or five times already. I backed up a foot or two and my attacker stopped attacking me. Instead of attacking me further, he hovered in the air on graceful butterfly wings in front of me. Had I been hurt, I wouldn’t have found it amusing. But, I was unhurt and found it funny and was laughing. After all, I was being attacked by a butterfly! Having stopped laughing, I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me again, ramming me in the chest with his head and body, striking me over and over again with all of his might, still to no avail.

For the second time, I retreated a step while the butterfly relented in his attack. Again I tried to move forward and the butterfly charged me, ramming me in the chest over and over again. I wasn’t sure just what to do, other than retreat a third time. After all, it’s not every day that a person is attacked by a butterfly! This time though, I stepped back several paces to look the situation over. My attacker moved back, as well, to land on the ground. That is when I discovered why my attacker was charging me only moments earlier.

Monarch butterfly

The butterfly had a mate and she was dying. She lay beside a big puddle of water where he landed. Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings several times as if to fan her. I could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. Even though I was so much larger, he attacked to prevent me from stepping on her. He just wanted to give his dying mate a few more precious moments of life.

Now that I knew why and what that butterfly was fighting for, there was really only one option left for me. I carefully made my way around the puddle to the other side of the path, even though it was only inches wide and extremely muddy. The butterfly’s courage in attacking something that was thousands of times larger and heavier than himself, just for his mate’s safety, justified it. I couldn’t do anything other than to reward him by walking on the more difficult side of that puddle. He had truly earned those moments to be with his mate, undisturbed. I left them in peace for those last few moments, cleaning the mud from my boots when I later reached my car.

Since then, I’ve always tried to remember the courage of that butterfly whenever I see huge obstacles facing me. I use that butterfly’s courage as an inspiration and to remind myself that good things are worth fighting for.

A World Turned Yellow -

Pamela’s story reminded me of an episode that happened many years ago at Third Connecticut Lake, in Pittsburg, N.H. I was fishing the lake for trout and my wife, Betty, was on the shore with our son Chris. She was reading to him when suddenly they were surrounded by a humongous swarm of yellow/black colored butterflies. Although they were in no danger, Chris and Betty decided to move into our vehicle so as not to hurt the flutterers. Without exaggeration, there were literally thousands of these butterflies! "It was as if the world turned totally yellow," my wife said.

As careful as they were, a few of the butterflies managed to get into the car with them. Chris hopped around from front seat to back seat trying to keep them from banging against the windows. He finally opened the windows and began shooing them out of the car. They watched for about two hours as I continued to troll the lake in my canoe. As suddenly as they had appeared, the butterflies lost interest in the field of flowers they had come to visit and flew away in a huge group, like a humongous yellow cloud.

I returned to shore soon after, proud to have caught a great lunch of rainbow trout, but had missed Mother Nature’s special show of the day. When we finally looked at pictures in our butterfly book at home, we determined the species Betty and Chris saw at Third Connecticut Lake, were Tiger Swallows.

Thank you Pam, for sharing your remarkable outdoors experience with our readers. It is a wonderful example of the fragile ecology and a reminder that we can learn a great deal in the out-of-doors by keeping our eyes open.

Bob Harris can be reached via e-mail at: outwriter2@aol.com