Visitors

Yesterday as I scrubbed algae from rocks as part of my pond Spring cleaning, I noticed a butterfly flitting all around me. Soon I noted that there were two of them however one was more reticent to visit with me than the other.

After trying to ignore them, they (especially one of them) seemed so insistent on getting my attention that I wondered if I was disturbing their home or something. I had been piling my cleaned rocks on the hose box and thought maybe they were making a home in there and I was wrecking everything for them. So...I moved all my rocks.

Still the butterfly presence became so distracting that I stopped to watch for awhile. I was standing near where one was flitting around, held out my hand, and the butterfly landed there and stayed for probably 30 to 45 seconds. It was quite amazing. He flew off and just a minute or two later either he or the other one came and landed on my hand. This time the visit lasted several minutes. I watched closely as his front foot stroked the back of my hand - not once but over and over for the whole time that he sat there.

Really? Does this happen? Of course all the while I was thinking of the stories I've heard of butterflies symbolizing resurrection, visiting as messengers, or a manifestation of a departed soul.

I'm not saying I think this is what it was. All I'm saying is that it was a very moving and unusual set of circumstances. Of course, I tried to get pictures but they didn't turn out very well? Have you ever tried to photograph a pair of swooping, flitting, playing, flying butterfies? It's almost impossible. I caught this one resting.


And then I peered through my viewfinder and wildly waved my camera around trying to catch them together, flying and playing. This one looks like a butterfly and a shadow but I don't think it is. I think it's two butterflies. I say this because it was so overcast that a shadow would have been almost impossible. Also, the second one is on the west side as was the sun since it was deep into the evening so how could it be a shadow? And, is it my imagination or are the wings spread just a little wider on the bottom one?

The last I saw them they were flying way high above the house. I aimed my camera straight up and I think I caught them just before they disappeared.


But of course it could not have been anything other than two butterflies. Why would departed souls take wing? Why would they visit me?

But some part of me wonders if maybe they were sent. Maybe they represented two little boys playing joyously - carefree and happy. And maybe they just wanted everybody to know that after the arrival of their little brother, all is right with their world.

So I called Beth to see if she minded if I posted this and do you know what she told me? She said that the summer after James and Jake were born, every time she walked outside, there were butterflies all around her.

And now I know. They really were sent to deliver a message.