Have you ever received a sign that you could not ignore? The Tiger Swallowtail is my chosen trademark because a few years ago my life was touched by three individual lovelies. The first was an elderly tattered and torn butterfly that chose to alight on my patio table, which I believed at the time had come there to die. After several hours of protecting her from becoming lunch to a passing bird, she miraculously decided it was not yet her time to leave this world. With fragile wings she took to the air and flew off to a place unknown.
A second tiger swallowtail came into my life just a couple of days later by way of a chrysalis that had wintered over in my garage on a flower pot. Upon bringing the pot outside to clean and plant with my annual
lantana, which is known to attract the tiger swallowtail, I discovered that the "dried leaf" that I could not easily brush off the outside of the pot was none other than a butterfly or moth chrysalis. My daughter and I kept close watch on the chrysalis throughout the day, and even though we were not there to witness the emergence of this second lovely, we were witness to her first few hours of life as a brand new butterfly. She was bigger than most of her kind that have visited my yard before. Maybe from wintering over? This I don't know. As you can see in the photo, we were able to closely admire her for quite awhile before her wings were dry enough to fly off into her new beautiful life. That is her chrysalis just above her.
The third lovely came into my life the very next day. While walking around my front yard garden, I came upon a tiger swallowtail walking on the ground. Now this I had never seen before, and so I thought that maybe it had been injured. I put my hand down in front of it, and to my delight, she walked right up onto my hand. I held her for a little while to check her for injury. Although she looked to be a "middle-aged" butterfly, she appeared to be okay. I was wondering what I should do with her. and just as I was about to offer her a place on a nearby bush, she took off to a tree in my yard. I watched her fly, and wished her a safe journey.
This all happened within one weeks time, and I thought about a saying that I had read somewhere not that long ago, "First God whispers." This triple occurrence has touched my life, and it will stay with me for ever.
Have you ever had something happen that spoke volumes to you? Do share.
