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“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”
― Rabindranath Tagore
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Diary entry day 1:
After a long season of arduous work, it is finally time to balance the scales.
I have found a most pleasing piece of real estate for my hibernation.
This year I chose not to go where the other butterflies go. It’s getting too crowded in that old ramshackle barn, there are far too many other butterflies using it, not to mention the mosquitoes, bees, wasps, and hornets, spiders and an assortment of scurrying things. It’s also rather draughty and dusty, not a good combination. My wings… oh, dear… I don’t want to have to clean them the way that I did last year, rain showers are not good for them!
I shall spend the night here to decide if my choice is going to be a permanent Winter residence.
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“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
― Muhammad Ali
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Diary entry day 2:
I had a rather restful sleep, which bodes well for the longer one that I can feel coming closer. It’s almost that time…
This new location for hibernation is fairly uninhabited.
The humans who built it don’t seem to bother with it, which means they won’t bother me.
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“We kill all the caterpillars, then complain there are no butterflies.”
― John Marsden
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Diary entry day 125:
Was disturbed from the deepest of sleeps and sweetest of dreams by a human taking pictures of me. With a flash. A FLASH! Really… I don’t know how anything survives in a world infested by such creatures! Do they not understand the importance and the rules of hibernation. Don’t they ever hibernate!?!
I suppose it could be worse, I heard through the butterfly psychic grapevine that this particular human wreaked havoc in the barn, and forced several soundly sleeping butterflies to waste valuable energy flapping around on the coldest of days. One of our kindred was lost to the eternal rest because of this… or perhaps it had already gone there. It happens. They say it is a reward for a life well spent, but frankly you’re just spent after living such a life.
Now that the human has gone I shall return to my business of staying in stasis until it is time to spread my wings and drink the nectar of pretty things.
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“and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.”
― Ruskin Bond
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An Upturned Soul 
Reblogged this on the dream running ahead of me and commented:
I found this so beautiful.
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Thank you very much 🙂
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Yup. We humans. Interfering in everything, not stopping to consider whether we should be doing what we’re doing. Yikes. We’ve done, and continue to do, so much damage.
Wonderful post. 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
I did stop to consider whether I should be bothering this hibernating butterfly, in fact I’d been considering it for a couple of months, loning to take it’s photo but not wanting to disturb it… Hmmmm 😉
Luckily it seemed totally unfazed…?
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Sorry – I guess that came across as pretty critical. 😕 I didn’t mean my comment to be personal – although I can see now why it could be. *cringe* I was thinking of the topic from a general perspective and went off on a big tangent in my head.
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No need to cringe. I didn’t see your comment as critical or personal, what I said in my reply was what I was thinking when I took the photographs and wrote the post. So if anyone was criticising me, it was myself 😉
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I am convinced animals spend a lot of time thinking, a sort of philosophical thinking on what we do.Your butterfly is very wise, she observes humankind as the cat in Soseki’s novel would do…Your pictures are gorgeous, although she might have complained of the flash…
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Thank you 🙂
Happy B’day eve! ❤
I'm not sure if nature troubles itself as much as humans do with the whole thinking when you don't need to think thing, but sometimes it does appear that way – it could be anthropomorphising.
Cats in particular do give you the – I've thought this through and you're an idiot – look. That butterfly definitely gave me a similar look 😉
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Ho l’umore in cantina…but my cat is looking at me and, yes, I think this is what is on his mind, but he shows a lot of affection too, and he accepts me.Definitely, he’s not a N. He’s purring all night long, he’s loyal and he doesn’t despise me and appreciates what I do for him- he tells me that with his wonderful ambered eyes.xxx
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I sometimes think my cat is an N, but only in a laughing at my perceptions kind of manner. I have occasionally told my cat that not everything I do is about her, that not every time I go into the kitchen is food time, that I am not her slave – that’s when she chuckles at my perceptions, because I am totally her slave 😉
Cat’s eyes are amazing, and so expressive.
Your cat sounds like a beautiful soul, like its owner 🙂
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he’s very tolerant, i can even trim his nails without wearing a special protection. The only thing, he hates to see me on the phone, so he has learnt to unplug the wires and he loves biting me (it’s a form of kissing).Your cat is so beautiful, a real queen!
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The trimming of the nails… omg! My cat’s vet had to do that recently because my cat injured herself and the vet thought it could have to do with overly long nails. This was during the time that we had just moved and my cat’s rhythms were disrupted. The vet instructed me to keep an eye on her nails and trim them… I think some chainmail armor might be useful 😉
When a cat bites you it means you’re tasty 🙂
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