The kids’ school has a few Swamp Milkweed plants to encourage monarch butterflies to lay their eggs there so that the monarch caterpillars has something to eat and a place to live before creating their chrysalis. The children not only get an opportunity to see each stage of a butterfly’s life cycle, but they learn to respect and take care of creatures much smaller and fragile than themselves.
Today there was a great buzz around the swamp plants as 2 monarch butterflies were dancing around from leave to stem, finding a place to lay eggs. I decided to take photos of the butterflies but was in for a real treat when after following one particular butterfly around, we literally saw her lay an egg, 1 single egg, a tiny white speck on the bright green leave. I was more excited about this than the children around me. I felt a bit awkward for the butterfly as her privacy was rudely interrupted by gawking humans. But she flew off, leaving her egg to soon develop into a small, stripy caterpillar.
It was then when one of my daughter’s class friends pointed out to something moving underneath one of the leaves. At first I couldn’t clearly make out what she was pointing too, until I saw the wriggly body of a caterpillar. It was so small yet strikingly characteristic of a monarch caterpillar. It was happily munching away on the food source the swamp plant is providing.
I was in awe of this. From speck, to caterpillar to beautiful butterfly. Creation is amazing. Life is exciting.
What if there is someone way out there, looking down on our world right now. And to them, we are the speck.
weatheringtulip 