Becoming a Butterfly - The Parsley, Caterpillar and Me

Last week I walked across my deck one morning and gasped.  Overnight something had eaten the large bouquet of parsley that once filled a pot.  I had clipped from this particular parsley for a year and at times daily as I cooked.

It survived the winter but not the big beautiful caterpillar I spied lounging in the remains. This particular caterpillar is the precursor to the beautiful black swallowtail butterfly.  I smiled.  I could easily buy more parsley. Butterflies this summer have not been that easy to come by with the shifting climate and unconscious use of pesticides.

I returned often that morning happy to see the caterpillar still there then sad when he or she disappeared while I worked.

A week passed.

(This is where I'm suppose to write of seeing the black swallowtail flying about my yard. Instead.....) 

I walked by and noticed the parsley's return! I know biological processes underlie this resurgence of green but this visual testament to growth after decimation provided valuable inspiration and resuscitation.

 

I know what it feels like to be decimated, plowed down so to speak especially over the last few weeks.  And in the past lives of this life, I've known what it is like to grow again.  Yet my soul needed this visual reminder.

I am the parsley devoured in time resurrected and green.  And I am the caterpillar feeding on the experiences of my life on my way to becoming the butterfly.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 18 August 2013

dawn@imaginetheshift.com