Thursday, July 08, 2010

Thanks Little Butterfly

I put Mozart on my stereo this morning and fired up the speakers on the screen porch. It was warm, but the ceiling fan made it feel quite nice.
When the weather permits, I like to write on the porch. I'm doing a rewrite on one of the chapters of my latest project, and as I sat there trying to work things out in my head, a warm breeze out of the west tinkled the chimes.
When I looked up, I saw that a black swallowtail butterfly had become trapped inside the screen.
She probably would have been fine, but I was afraid she'd fly into the spinning fan, or worse, not find her way off the porch before the evening sun warmed up the west side of the house and baked her like a blackberry pie.
So I decided to try and shoo her off the porch. She FREAKED and flew all around the porch with me in hot pursuit. I turned off the fan and let it stop before I proceeded.
Each time I tried to get her to fly out the open door, she flew up and away from the escape route. Finally I closed in and gently cupped my hands and trapped her.
Her wings tickled my palms. When I stepped outside and opened my hands to release her, she didn't fly. She sat there flexing her wings.
I knew I hadn't harmed her wings because I was extra careful. Apparently she realized I wasn't a threat and decided to hang out for a while.
After a few minutes, she fluttered off towards the purple Rose-a-Sharon bush.
I took this as a good omen. When I set back down to my story, the pieces fell into place like an easy puzzle.
Thanks little butterfly.

4 comments:

  1. it is lovely and very nice..
    thank you dear

    ReplyDelete
  2. If I were to write outdoors in the summertime, as you do, I'd never be able to get my mind on anything other than that scene. Sometimes though, when you are stuck, it's best to fly off on the wings of the butterfly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We would hope to see butterfly on the acknowledgment page. ;-D

    ReplyDelete

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