Saturday, November 3, 2012

Butterfly Heart


Photo: Monarch butterfly on a flower
I recently traveled a few miles south of here to the Pismo Beach area where there is a Monarch Butterfly Grove.  This is a place where these elusive creatures come each year to winter, rest and breed in the Spring before they head North again.  They are here from 6 to 8  months.  Just beginning to arrive now, there were not many of them, but I stood talking to a docent for a bit about their lives.
They cling to the leaves of specific eucalyptus trees, but do not eat all winter as their metabolism slows.   As you can see from this second photo, they clump together, probably to keep warm. They don't move around much but as temperatures change they raise or lower their position on the tree relative to temperature.  The ones that arrive in the fall from west of the Rockies travel up to 3,000 miles.  Most of the western Monarchs end up all along the California coast.  The ones east of the Rockies head for Mexico.  They feed on Milkweed on their trip south and fatten up (yep, fat butterflies!) and do not eat again  until after they breed.   The new crop emerges and heads to the foothills for the fresh crop of Milkweed.
What I found amazing about them is that it takes 4 generations to make the round trip from Canada to Southern California and back.  So the ones that arrive here will live for 6-8 months hanging in the trees, breed and die.  The baby generation will make it to foothills but will only live about 6-8 weeks, (not months).  Each generation follows the Milkweed production to the north also living only 6-8 weeks, until next late summer when the fourth generation begins their journey south.  The lifespan of the "winter butterflies" is greatly different given the climate and temperature.   There is little know about how the great grandchildren of the butterflies that leave here in the spring navigate and return to the same trees that their great grandparent butterflies left 4-6 months before.
  There lives are so elusive and short.  But they are lead, in a direction, not knowing their fate, but are pulled and fashioned to make this extraordinary trip, linking them to those that go before and after them.  It puts me in mind to trust, believe, yield to the instincts within me, to listen for the call, whether it be to Milkweed, Ocean, taking a new path today, or just to sleep later this morning.  We are all part of something.  Like the Monarch, we may not be able to see the end of the journey, but we must pay attention and do our part of the journey as best we can.


Key words:   We belong to a process much greater than our own little lifespan.  
Pay attention to what you are here to do.


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