The Crocus Flower is one of the first signs of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. These tiny purple white and sometimes yellow flowers adorn the earth and fill our eyes with little bits of beauty. They are a reminder that the earth is awakening again from its winter rest. And they are a reminder that the cycle of life from death to rebirth is happening again.
Look at these little flowers…
There is so much hope that lies within each of these flowers. Think of yourself when you see them rising up in the earth at the beginning of spring. They make you feel excited that spring is starting. They fill you with HOPE for new days, longer sunlit skies, colorful plants, green leaves and warmer days.
This beauty transcends into your heart and flows into your soul as you are filled with this gift of divine grace.
Open yourself and feel the divine gift of nature given to you. This gift [of flowers] is not just here for us to see…it is here to awaken our souls to the wonder of life and the hope that lies within each of us.
I want to share with you a beautiful experience I had this summer. We all need beauty in our lives, but experiencing beauty and awe, seem to be exceptionally important this year with all that is going on in our world both close and far from us. This August my family and I were blessed with the gift of raising a Monarch from our garden. We watched her hatch from an egg, eat her way to becoming a large plump caterpillar, change into a chrysalis, and then into a magnificent creature of flight.
Our beautiful Monarch stayed in our garden for 3 days drinking the succulent nectar of my flowers. She had previously been with us for 26 days as she began as an egg to her birthing into a butterfly. Spending almost a month together we become family to one another. My two year old cried when we had to say good-bye. Possibly she stayed because she wanted to ease his grief; she had love for us as we did her. Maybe she stayed because as she flew into the garden the flowers and milkweed seemed to be a familiar place of love and connection for her: it was where her mother danced and gave birth to her. The flowers also hold the memory of previous generations of Monarchs who drank from their nectar and thus the flowers also have a great love for her, knowing her as a parent knows their child. We, people, creatures, nature, all of creation are connected through this magical web of energy and love. When we see this, and believe this we become part of the great family of creation. This connection of love invites us and allows us to begin to heal and remember who we truly are.
September and October are the months of TheGreat Migration.
The Monarch we were blessed to raise is from the “Super Monarch Generation.” She lives about 7 to 8 months compared to the other Monarch’s who are born after her in the spring (March/April) through the beginning of August. (Each of those generations only live about a month at a time). Additionally, she is flying about 2,400 miles from my home in Massachusetts to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico to live atop trees at elevations of 2,000-3,000 feet. These creatures with such tiny wings, flying such distance are truly magnificent. Can you imagine being in the mountains and witnessing the beauty of all of them together, all the vastness of the trees, sky and peaks? The lifespan, endurance, and flight of the Monarchs born in August are a mysterious, beautiful gift. These creatures are a symbol of what we are all capable of, but have yet to fully understand.
May we watch these beautiful creatures and learn from them: to have hope, to keep trying, and mostly to believe in the mysterious and wonderful. They have so much to teach us.
I hope you enjoy these photographs of her. And I hope you make the time in your life to notice the connection you have with nature, and that nature has with you.
Have you ever raised a butterfly at home before? Do you have a favorite kind of Butterfly?
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