“Did you know that the monarch butterfly is on the endangered species list?”
That was the question posed by her as I was drifting towards sleep on Thursday. Needless to say, I came awake and immediately replied, “No. I had no idea. How can that even be?”
“It was just announced today,” she replied.
I was now speechless, so off to sleep I went, imagining that I would be having dreams of butterflies. But I don’t dream that much these days, so, I figured in the morning that the mind had closed the matter, at least for now. I did the morning meditation, came downstairs, made my tea as the younger puppy came out to the kitchen with her daily morning greeting of ‘toy in her mouth’. We went out to the deck and down the steps for the daily barefoot walk in the grass, and to check on the state of the flowers— both in the garden and the ones growing in the wild.
A bit of background. Mother and daughter have been volunteering at the local nature center, which also happens to have a ‘butterfly house’ as a main attraction. I get stories and updates, photos and videos of some of the butterfly activities, every time they go volunteer. I am planning to go visit soon, but for now, I’m enjoying all the education they bring me about caterpillars, milkweed, pupation and, yes, the emergence of butterflies.
The other backstory is that over the past few years, we have made several attempts to plant and grow butterfly-friendly flowers in our own garden. We have had some success, but none of the perennials have quite made it past a year or so. Until this year that is. This year, nature has seen enough of our fumbling and decided to show us how it’s done. The result has been at least a dozen or so, four to six feet tall, purple colored (loosestrife) butterfly bushes blooming alongside with the wild willows, just behind the fence next to the small stream that feeds the pond.
So, that’s the two-part background. For the first time all summer, in my daily walk along the fence to check on the forest, there was my first sighting of a morning visitor to the butterfly bushes. A majestic creature of black and gold wings, ordinary to many eyes but extraordinary to me in this time and space,, given all the context I shared above. How can this emergence happen, and so ‘quickly’ at that, considering the talk of ‘extinction’ less than twelve hours ago?
I don’t know. I will leave the space and time question for greater minds to ponder. Coincidence? Perhaps. And yet I am reminded of the quote that ‘what we call coincidence is where the divine decides to stay anonymous.’ The energy of the divine is rarely, if ever anonymous, is it? If that is so, then is it an ‘anonymous’ energy that makes our hearts beat, our lungs breath, our ears hear, our eyes see, our tongues taste, and our spirit emerge into light?
Perhaps the nature of the divine is one of constant emergence, not anonymity. This divine emergence manifests in us as our awakening every day to existence itself, to awareness itself, to bliss itself. Emergence of the heart, the spirit, the soul is an integral part of the divine plan.
The grand plan is perhaps for all of us to be like butterflies, spreading our wings as we bring color, light, and lightness to all whom we cross flight paths with, and share the stillness of our pauses as we sit briefly in-between flights, on purple bushes growing in the wild.
On your next walk or meditation, pay attention to signs of emergence being sent your way. Then, take a moment or so, and celebrate your ongoing emergence, will you? It’s about time, isn’t it?
Kumud
P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter chat and gathering on Sunday July 24 at 9amET / 1pmGMT/ 630pm India in #SpiritChat. Bring some photos of emergence, and I will bring tea and questions. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK
P.P.S. I wrote this post Friday morning. Later in the afternoon, on the very hydrangeas that have been spreading fragrance all summer, there was another visitor. My wife confirmed that I wasn’t seeing things. Yes. It was a Monarch butterfly, red and black wings in all her royalty… my first sighting of the summer. 🦋🙏🏽😌
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