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Saving a Beautiful Butterfly's Life

A Drying Flying Flower

By Chris Dunmire, CurrentLiving.com

I was running late that morning. Everything was wet from on-and-off rain showers the night before. I pulled into the parking lot of the place where I work on Tuesday mornings and quickly exited my car. As I turned to walk towards the center I noticed a small blue piece of paper plastered wet to the ground next to my car. It was unusually bright colored.

I stepped closer and realized that it wasn’t paper at all — it was a butterfly! A soaking wet butterfly that resembled a wet leaf crumpled on the blacktop. Poor butterfly. It had to be dead. I knelt down towards the delicate creature and smiled at its artful beauty. Its wings had other colors in it besides blue — it reminded me of tissue paper stained glass.

Dead or not, I couldn’t leave this beautiful being lying in the parking lot to get run over, so I gently lifted its wet wing from the pavement so I could move it. Its leg twitched. Is it still alive?

Excited, I scooped the butterfly up and walked it over to a big rock next to a flower garden where it could safely dry out in the sunshine. As I gently positioned it in the middle of the stone I watched for more signs of life. Nothing. I said a quiet prayer in my heart hoping that Source would help the butterfly heal and allow its life to continue.

A half hour later I had to get a pair of work gloves from my car trunk. On my way out to the parking lot I saw my blue patient still drying on the rock. My hope was fading. How did it end up plastered on the blacktop? I wondered. Did it get caught in the rain? I retrieved my gloves and went back inside to do some more work.

An hour later I was back outside. Again, I looked towards the healing stone and expected to see the lifeless blue paper. The butterfly was gone! My heart leaped as I hurried toward the rock to make sure the wind didn’t blow it away. It wasn’t windy and there was no sign of the flying flower anywhere.

In my heart I knew that the butterfly's wings had dried, and it had fluttered away. •

© 2007 Chris Dunmire, CurrentLiving.com. All rights reserved. (07/28/07) Please do not duplicate this article elsewhere without my permission.

About the Author
Chris Dunmire is creatively engaged in life as an artist, writer, humorist, and publisher of the popular Creativity Portal Web site. She's trained as a creativity coach with Eric Maisel, Ph.D., and develops projects and playbooks to encourage creative thinking, artistic expression, and play in people of all ages. Learn more about Chris's books at CreativeSlush.com.