Butterflies -- Beautiful and Mysterious

July 27, 2010

Anonymous The McCreary County Record Tue Jul 27, 2010, 12:07 PM EDT

Dear Editor:

   I just read Peter Ferrara's article in the July 20th edition of the paper and was particularly drawn to the last paragraph wherein he described how at a political gathering a butterfly had entered a tented area and proceeded to "visit" several people, landing upon their hands.

   This reminded me of a very similar incident that happened to me on the beach when we lived on Jekyll Island, Ga.

   One day my wife and I were strolling the beach and came upon a large, beautiful monarch butterfly lying in the edge of the surf, appearing as if to be stuck or exhausted and was just lying there. I had to bend down to really determine if it was indeed alive or dead. It was alive and I gently picked it up, cupped it in my left hand and then cupped my right hand over it with my fingers spread out so it could get plenty of air and still be shaded, all the time hoping it would regain it's energy once I removed it from the water.

   We sat down on the beach, hoping and waiting to see if it would or could revive itself. After several minutes, I could tell it was getting stronger as it began to move around more and more, then slowly flapping it's wings, as though it wanted to fly. I continued to hold on to it for a few more minutes, as I didn't want to risk it getting back in the water.

   When I felt it was revived enough to fly, I opened my hands, held my left hand with the butterfly up and it slowly lifted off and started in it's usual zig-zag- floppy pattern to fly towards the woods above the beach.

   We stood watching it as it flew away but as it neared the woods, it turned, came directly back to me, lit on my left shoulder and sat there for at least a full minute -- then flew off again up into the woods.

   Did it realize I had probably saved it's life -- was it thanking me, or was it just a quirk or coincidence?

   I'll never know but as Peter stated in his article " If it could have spoken, I wonder what it would have said?" If it had said " thank you "I would have answered "the pleasure was all mine!"

Herman Hayes

Lexington, KY

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