Emergence
My magical practice this morning was birthing butterflies!! (OK well, after yoga. I do yoga in the dark because I'm not ready for light yet but as soon as I turned on the light, here they came!)
Back up.
A couple of weeks ago we had the surprise cold snap that we have every year after it has started to warm up into lovely spring. The trees start to bud, we plant all kinds of stuff in the garden and the plants are COVERED in caterpillars. IT'S SPRING! And then the one last vicious cold front comes in and threatens to kill it all just as it's bursting forth.
Our whole yard is designed as a butterfly haven. It was heartbreaking to think all those caterpillars, so full of hope and promise of butterflies, were going to freeze to death out there without any little winter pillar coats on.
So we bought a little terrarium and put the caterpillars, some sticks and leaves in it. Honestly, I was afraid we'd accidentally kill them trying to save them. But we didn't!
They ate and ate and pooped and pooped. We kept the thing clean and kept putting in fresh leaves. We thought we would put them back outside when it warmed up in a couple of days but they had other plans. They formed chrysalises! So we kept them in the habitat and have just watched them for the last 2 weeks, putting them way up high at night so they didn't become kitty snacks.
Last night we could see the wings through the walls of the chrysalis and knew they would hatch soon. This morning I guess they thought it was daylight when I turned on the light because one by one they all started to hatch! We started with 8 chrysalises and by the time we made ourselves leave for work this morning, we had 4 butterflies with one just about to birth.
A friend is going to come over at noon and let them fly away. They need the morning in the habitat to let their new wings dry. You know what happens when you try to move wet art too soon.
It was beautiful to watch. I feel honored to have borne witness to their transition.
"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly."
Update from Dori at noon:
The children have flown away safely. They rode a twig up past the top of the box and then launched themselves into the wild blue yonder.
Back up.
A couple of weeks ago we had the surprise cold snap that we have every year after it has started to warm up into lovely spring. The trees start to bud, we plant all kinds of stuff in the garden and the plants are COVERED in caterpillars. IT'S SPRING! And then the one last vicious cold front comes in and threatens to kill it all just as it's bursting forth.
Our whole yard is designed as a butterfly haven. It was heartbreaking to think all those caterpillars, so full of hope and promise of butterflies, were going to freeze to death out there without any little winter pillar coats on.
So we bought a little terrarium and put the caterpillars, some sticks and leaves in it. Honestly, I was afraid we'd accidentally kill them trying to save them. But we didn't!
They ate and ate and pooped and pooped. We kept the thing clean and kept putting in fresh leaves. We thought we would put them back outside when it warmed up in a couple of days but they had other plans. They formed chrysalises! So we kept them in the habitat and have just watched them for the last 2 weeks, putting them way up high at night so they didn't become kitty snacks.
Last night we could see the wings through the walls of the chrysalis and knew they would hatch soon. This morning I guess they thought it was daylight when I turned on the light because one by one they all started to hatch! We started with 8 chrysalises and by the time we made ourselves leave for work this morning, we had 4 butterflies with one just about to birth.
A friend is going to come over at noon and let them fly away. They need the morning in the habitat to let their new wings dry. You know what happens when you try to move wet art too soon.
It was beautiful to watch. I feel honored to have borne witness to their transition.
"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly."
Update from Dori at noon:
The children have flown away safely. They rode a twig up past the top of the box and then launched themselves into the wild blue yonder.