Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
August is a great time for butterflies. I chased one all around the hayfield the other day when I was walking to try to get a picture. I think butterflies are born teasers when they see somebody with a camera in her hand. This one would sit still as can be until I pulled my phone out and turned it on. But once I had it pointed at the butterfly, he was off to the butterfly races. Finally I gave up and simply enjoyed the butterfly floating along with me for half of my walk. That was a day I didn’t let Oscar go since it was ninety degrees and his black coat is hot. I promise you, he wasn’t upset. He has gotten spoiled to the air conditioning.
Here are three that I did manage to catch up with. And one that landed on my granddaughter’s arm and stayed there for a while one day last summer when we were walking. It made her happy. Somehow a butterfly lighting on you sort of feels like a blessing. The butterfly might be attracted to your sweat, but it’s more fun to think they are attracted to your sweetness. And that could certainly be true with this girl. She’s a very sweet natured and loving child.
Finding “The End”
In case any of you were wondering, I did find “the end” last night. Well, actually in the wee hours of this morning. Not sure it’s the right end. I could have been half asleep, but now I can go back and start those all important edits. That will help me know if the end I found is right or something that needs a major overhaul. I’m way over my contracted word count. As usual, I’m going to have find thousands of words to cut, but that’s usually not as difficult as it sounds. Thank all of you for your encouragement and for reading.
This Week’s Winner
Thanks also to those of you who have been commenting each post and joining in my August giveaway fun. A couple more weeks to go and so two more winners to come. This week my winner is Emily. In June, Emily shared her amazing Dream Team story here on my blog. It’s an inspiring read if you missed it back in June. So now, Emily still comes back to join in the conversation here from time to time. This time her comment got her name in my drawing hat and her number came up. Actually, I give each comment a number and then use Random.org to randomly select a number, but a drawing hat sounds more fun.
You might be next Sunday’s winner. Just leave a comment on this blog post or on Wednesday’s, assuming I get a post done on Wednesday. Any comment will do, but I’d love it if you would tell me something about butterflies.
Do you love watching butterflies? Have you ever taken a picture of one? Read a story about butterflies?
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Beautiful fragile butterflies…..sweetly sipping nectar from flowers.
But…..butterflies get a lot of their nutrients from eating some disgusting things…..mud, feces, blood, rotten flesh, sweat, tears, and urine.
Now, when one lands on your hand, you can wonder what kind of food that beautiful creature thinks you can provide 😳
PS…..happy you found ‘the end’, Ann
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Marji, I knew that about butterflies, but I hadn’t mentioned it. They do often cluster around some not so sweet things, but I think I’ll be a milkweed bloom or a butterfly bush or a zinnia when they light on me. 🙂
And I was very happy to find the end and even happier now while I’m editing to find out the story isn’t so bad. 🙂
I was anxiously waiting to go to surgery & a butterfly flew up to my window. One of my friends there commented on butterflies being a symbol of hope & fulfillment. A symbol of rebirth. I went to surgery there is always rebirth. I gave my father a gold tie tac of a butterfly & he remembered it & the meaning. He would grin from ear to ear waiting for his rebirth. He had Alzheimer’s, but he didn’t lose those precious moments which meant joy for the future.
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What a lovely story, Betty. Hope and fulfillment. The butterfly is a good symbol of rebirth, of what we might have to look forward to. It had to mean a lot of you for your father to think about his rebirth during those sad Alzheimer days.
Somehow I feel blessed when one lights on me. I envy their beauty and freedom…
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They are beautiful, Sandi, but they don’t get to live long. And they have to start out crawling in the dirt. But then they do get to fly. 🙂
I love watching butterflies. I have taken a few pictures, but like you say, they won’t sit still for long! I have some plants of Autumn Joy Sedum, when it starts turning red, really attracts butterflies. It also attracts wasps and bees , I don’t get to close to them with the camera!
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I’ve got some regular sedum, Connie, but I’ve never noticed butterflies on it. Other bugs though. When bees are busy getting pollen, I have taken pictures of them. Wasps not so much. 🙂
I love watching butterflies but have a hard time getting pictures of them.
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Perhaps it’s better to just watch and store the memory up in our minds, Ola. Sometimes I wonder if we’re so ready to record everything now on our ever ready cameras that we sometimes miss the joy of the moment.
The most beautiful thing on earth with their varied vibrant colors, flitting around, lighting so softly. I could tell my butterfly story in private but not here 🙂
Love these pictures you’ve shared.
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Thanks for stopping by, Loretta. Always fun to see your comments. The Lord did give us a gift of beauty with those butterflies and a lesson in patience and the Lord’s timing too when you think about the caterpillars becoming butterflies. It’s hard to imagine a caterpillar sprouting wings but it happens. Nature can be amazing.
I love watching butterflies, too. You are right, they are camera shy or like to tease! I have a butterfly bush next to my deck and spend lots of time watching. One landed on my shirt which had bright colors but didn’t have my camera handy. Truly one of God’s special creations!
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So sounds like you were a butterfly bush in that bright shirt, Linda. Too bad you couldn’t get a picture of that. You as a flower and the butterfly. 🙂 Butterflies are uniquely beautiful, but then the Lord says that about all of us too. Each a uniquely different creation.
I love watching butterflies! We live in the country and there are a lot of wildflowers so we have a lot of butterflies that flit around from flower to flower and all different colored ones too! I have tried to take pictures of the butterflies but every time I snap the picture it ends up that the butterfly moves so I never get a good picture! I don’t think I remember reading any stories about butterflies except for on your blog page.
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It’s fun that you’ve read my butterfly posts, Lisa. I have that trouble with the butterfly moving before I get the picture snapped too. But with a digital camera you can keep trying. Sometimes I think the flower they are makes a difference in how still they sit and for how long. So glad you’re seeing lots of butterflies where you live.
I love watching butterflies. For those few seconds it as though I’m soaring with them. It gives me a few seconds of freedom from the daily routine.
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Soaring with the butterflies. That sounds lovely, Pat. I might not always soar, but sometimes I skip along with them and a butterfly does always light up a day.
I love to watch butterflies. The only butterfly story I have is that several years ago, at a particularly bad time in my life, I suddenly seemed to attract butterflies. Every time I went out, they fluttered around me and followed me through the yard. Although I don’t ascribe any mystical/spiritual meaning to this, it made me smile on bad days.
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Sometimes the Lord sends a gift, Tammy, when we need it most. You’ll have to read Roberta’s comment of how a butterfly lifted her spirits at a very sad time. Finding a smile on days that are hard is always good. Glad that happened for you.
I LOVE chasing butterflies. Lots of flowers in my yard and the swallowtails especially like the butterfly bush and the zinnias. So do the monarchs. Many days in IL this time of year I see at least two, often more, fluttering among the flowers and I have gotten some pretty neat pics with just my point and shoot camera. Whenever I am inside and see them I have to grab my camera and go out. Usually if I stand still they will return to the flower I just saw them on.
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Sounds like you’re a butterfly appreciator for sure, Jeanne. I generally just take pictures with my camera phone because I usually have it with me. I haven’t been as patient out in my zinnia patch this year. Standing still is my problem, lol, but I’m still planning to go out and “capture” some butterflies with my camera. I love the digital cameras so that I don’t have to worry about wasting film the way I used to.
My husband ordered milkweed to plant in our field in hopes of drawing monarchs back to our area along with other wildflowers especially hopeful for their diet. Your posts are so interesting and photo intriguing 😀 Kathleen ~ Lane Hill House
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Thank you for those kind words, Kathleen. I always enjoy your comments. We have a little milkweed growing in some of our hayfields. Sometimes I see butterflies on them. I hope your husband’s planting will be successful. I’ve seen fewer Monarch this year than usual. Only a couple.
Hi, Ann. I love butterflies! They aren’t so prevalent where we live now ; but I remember taking the grandkids to the zoo in St. Louis, where we moved from last summer. They had a butterfly dome. It had lots of butterflies and they would land on or really close to you. What fun! Butterflies bring happy memories.
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I think most of us feel that smile when we see butterflies, Paula. I’ve been in a couple of those butterfly domes and that’s always fun to see all the different butterflies close up. Happy memories for sure.
Butterflies. Oh, my heart! In the summer of 1997 we lost our only daughter. Heartbreak doesn’t even begin to describe our grief. The world stopped and all color went out of existence. As we followed our daughter’s casket out of the chapel of the church, a big, beautiful, colorful, butterfly greeted us as we walked out the doors. Each of us, at the same time, gasped! We don’t get big butterflies in Wild, Windy Wyoming. We like to think that butterfly was heaven sent, especially for us. That dainty butterfly stayed with us that day. What a tender mercy. Butterflies have been incredibly special to us ever since.
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How very sad, Roberta, and what a gift of spiritual joy to have that butterfly be there at that sad time. Sometimes the Lord sends gifts. After my mom died a couple of years ago, a little titmouse bird kept comes to my office window to sit on a flowerpot and sing. While I sensibly know the bird was probably singing to its reflection in the window, it still felt like a gift to me since my mother did love birds. I can understand why you love butterflies.
We live near a couple of the areas where monarch butterflies winter. It’s so special to get to see them each year!
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That does sound like a great way to see butterflies, Margaret. I read a novel by Mary Alice Monroe, I think, about the Monarch migration.