Meg’s Butterfly Story

June ’07
I left work on a Saturday. Ed was doing tree work all day in our yard. He joined me at the end of the day to say “hello” and “how was your day”. As I was sitting on our patio, I was glancing over at the parsley that I had planted next to our back door, and I see a yellowish-green image of a caterpillar on the parsley. I got up and walked over to our parsley, and I got so excited! There were thirteen of these caterpillars eating all of my parsley! I told Ed, “they’re going to turn into butterflies!” But I did not know caterpillars ate parsley; I thought they only ate milkweed, because Connie, who wrote a book on monarchs, raises caterpillars to turn into chrysalises to be born into monarchs. I know I have her book at my store and the next day was Sunday, and I wasn’t going to work. So Sunday morning I woke up and I called Amie, my girlfriend, 92, who knows Connie in California. And I told Amie we needed to call Connie in California to find out what to do with these caterpillars. I proceeded to go out planting my flowers on Sunday morning in my front yard, and a car rolled in the driveway. Not knowing who it was, a husband and wife jumped out and a woman asked “Where are they? Where are they?” And I asked, “Who are you?” And she said, “I am Barbara, a friend of Amie’s! But where are the caterpillars?” So I walked her over to the parsley. She got so excited and got me more excited, explaining to me that I had to create a screened-in box and put it in the house or else the birds would eat them. So I went in the house and I created this screened-in box with a cover and duct tape and I dug up potted parsley and put that in the box. Well these caterpillars, they are going through all my parsley, plant after plant after plant! I couldn’t believe how quickly they were devouring the parsley! Ed said to me, “Well, they’re Italian caterpillars!” I just laughed. I gave Barbara two to take with her, because she asked me. Meanwhile, I wanted to share my experience with all my customers. So I brought them to work! I did call Connie in California and she explained to me, “Meg, these are Eastern Swallow-Tail butterflies, which happen to be the most beautiful of the butterflies.” I asked her, “Don’t they eat milk weed?” And she said, “No, they only eat parsley,” which made more sense to me. I also asked, “I noticed them turning into chrysalises, but the chrysalises were turning black and I’d thought they’d died.” Connie, being the expert on butterflies said, “No, this is the color they turn to and they take up to four to eight weeks to turn into a butterfly, and it’s spectacular!” It has been just unbelievable seeing them manifest into gorgeous butterflies. I have been sharing this journey with my butterflies with everyone and they get as excited as me. I have been capturing a few shots to share with everyone also. It fascinates me that the painting of my butterfly inspires so many people in a magnet form and the phrase, “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” The truth to that makes that magnet even more meaningful and why I’ve been drawn to painting these butterflies. A customer of mine told me that there’s many meanings to the number thirteen. Again, this has just been part of my journey this year and another blessing that I am sharing with everyone that knows me and is on their own spiritual journey of life. So enjoy the pictures that will follow the birth of the butterflies.