Good-Bye

Beauty and mystery interwoven in creation.

Life has overflowed with praises to the Maker for what I've witnessed this fall. Taken completely by surprise by the riches and fullness in my heart, words of joy and thanksgiving, awe and amazement, have poured out from these long silent lips.

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I didn't expect to be so profoundly moved by the process of metamorphosis that these little creatures go through. Dear Man can testify to my lying in bed, words tripping over themselves trying to get out of my mouth, as I described the mystery and beauty of the little pods that housed a being in transition, my hands gesticulating to better demonstrate what could so poorly be expressed with words. This has been an experience I wouldn't trade for the world's riches!

So now, goodbye to our little friends, the ones who have shared the warmth of our home and are now finding their own place far, far away:

Good bye Autumn, our first emerger, so named because you were released on the first day of Autumn.

Good bye Falline, whose emergence from the chrysalis we were blessed to witness, but whose beautiful fall colours weren't to last. You, who died an untimely death in our backyard and have been put to rest in our butterfly garden. (Oh the lamenting that was heard from our yard that day!)

Good bye Aidan, our first male, you, who took off with a flourish, full of energy on a lovely warm day.

Good bye Buttercup, the monarch who we watched moment by moment as she changed from caterpillar to chrysalis, and who emerged on the Day of Thanks.

Good bye Wesley, the last to leave. You emerged while we were eating breakfast, your cage on the dining table, and still we didn't see the moment you broke through the chrysalis. You winged your way to the leaves of our backyard maple and waited there for hours before setting out for the south.

Papa God, thank You.