Category: Butterflies

Animals Have Trials too.

We all know this is a fact that the animal kingdom is always in self preservation mode from predators or from “friends of like kind” who want what they have. Greed knows no limits of creature types. Today we are talking about a few creatures that came across my path this week. I am choosing to highlight their paths of possible doom to highlight that kindness can stretch across all specie types. While I don’t have a picture of doomed fate of this butterfly, I did manage to save it from drowning in the birdbath.

His wings stuck together due to be so saturated

After a couple of hours in the sun, he was able to completely dry and fly off to his next error of judgement for his very short life.

I work part time at my church answering the phone so of course I set up bird feeders outside my window. I have share many photos of the antics the birds, squirrels and rabbits do there. They do keep us entertained. But yesterday…well, I am not sure what to say or be able explain how this happened, However, my gut tells me somehow there was a squirrel involved.

He was quite terrified as I approached to release him from his trap but finally I was able to turn the feeder upside down and he scrambled under a bush. Twenty minutes later, with a full feeder, they were all back eating. I am sure he was part of the group.

Now this next creature was not so fortunate in getting rescued as this stairwell of the church is seldom used but alas somehow he managed to get inside of it and find no way out.

Bats really are quite interesting creatures and watching the Zoo shows on TV, it reminds us they are vital to our environment. They eat lots of skeeters. We hope we don’t have bats again in the bellfry of the church. Not a fun thing to deal with.

The last creature, the tiniest of the creatures, is the winner of the fight. After an extended fight over who owned the feeder, there was a clear winner.

See the mark on his chest?

Maybe that is just under plumage but it looked to be missing feathers. Seems the same bird is clearly marking this as his for the better part of the week.

There are so many wonderful things going on around us in nature. You just need to open you eyes to see them. Embrace the beauty you see, help when help is needed and always be kind.

Encouragement for the Weekend

Good evening friends. Hope your week has been good. Have you ever questioned if you were doing things as God needed you to. I think we all have from time to time and after I read my Thursday’s devotion, I questioned myself enough that I had to run it by Pastor Rob. I think it’s normal to ask those questions for when we get so comfortable never to ask, then that may be a troublesome sign. And it’s funny to me how God usually finds a way to answer those questions, either through someone, a song you may hear or something that you read. When I read last night’s devotion before going to bed in Jesus Calling’s Evening edition, I had to smile at God. In paraphrase…


He is pleased when we ask questions of concern of our walk, for asking is a collaborative way of living that he had in mind for us when we were created. The more we collaborate with the Spirit, the freer we become. Freer to live in and love extravagantly and to know Him with increasing intimacy. Sarah Young

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I love the comparison of a Christian to a caterpillar as we change and grow to become a beautiful butterfly in His eyes. I had this short piece below published in an anthology last year, The Sound of Brilliance, that reminds me of our struggle sometimes as a Christian being somewhat bound in a dark harsh world. 

A Monarch Task

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The warmth awakens me but I am tightly bound. I can’t move. My life blood is pulsing through my veins, waiting to explode. My head is pounding and screaming to break free of this dungeon. Yet, I can’t move. As cracks appear at the top of this cell, bright light is filtering in. I push with my might against the wall, as the crack begins to grow. I feel the closeness of freedom. I can taste it in the air, and feel it in the warm light. Pushing again, the binding splits. I roll out of the slit, stretching, feeling the ecstatic of freedom. The warmth strengthens me for my mission, my colors furl out refracting the light on the leaves. Time is wasting, I must hurry, only six weeks of life at best. 

And while we have longer than 6 weeks to live, the struggle is the same. We push against the hardness of this world and when we begin to feel the warmth of God’s love, the stronghold of the world breaks and we have freedom of life with the Spirit inside us. The Spirit then stands beside us and guides us as we go to face the challenges we run into.

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God always knows our hearts and guides us according to His will.

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So I encourage you tonight to not get concerned if you have questions about where you are in your walk, for we are at different places of our walk. But feel the peace  of Christ in knowing you are not doing any of this alone. Be safe and have a blessed weekend. And as always, remember to be Kind.

Anita Neal — I Write Her

A Monarch Task The warmth awakens me but I am tightly bound. I can’t move. My lifeblood is pulsing through my veins, waiting to explode. My head is pounding and screaming to break free of this dungeon. Yet, I can’t move. A crack appears at the top of the cell, bright light is filtering in. […]

Anita Neal — I Write Her

Thank you so much to Susi Bocks of I Write Her for publishing my poetry. It is an honor and an encouragement when others enjoy what you enjoy doing.

Beauty in the Sky

Things that Fly

This is an awkward story, rather a poem of things that fly

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Of God’s creation on day five of things that fill the sky

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Big things and small things can zoom through the air

Other things just float or flutter with acrobatical  affair

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Heavy things and light things, so many types there be

One must pay attention to all the beauty you can see

It was day five that God created the many things that fly

To show us the beauty of Him that love us…way up high

Anita Neal

If you enjoy being outside, look around at all that there is to see. There is life and beauty everywhere, big and little, fast and slow. All with their unique purpose and task to complete.  And as always I remind you the beauty and important attribute of Kindness. In all that we do, we should always be kind.

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What do you see #34

The Sapphire Butterfly

The brightness of the full moon as it sneaks through the trees

Breaks open the cocoons of these sapphire blue beauties

Their life span is short, lasting only the cycle of the moon

Leaving much to do, for their time will end too soon. 

If you are lucky enough for one to light softly on your fingers

You then will have a chance of wishing while it lingers

For once the wish is proclaimed and the butterfly is set free

It flies off to the Spirit where all wishes will come to be.

Anita Neal

This is a fun Monday prompt that Sadje is sponsoring and since I am a fan of butterflies, I just had to play along. Come join along with What do you see? and tell us what all you see.

And remember as with the beauty of nature, the beauty of kindness can also bring an inspiring moment. Try to always be kind.

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Gate Finally Complete, More Adult Coloring

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my fencing nightmare where the fence part finally got corrected from very poor installation. If interested, you can go here to read that post. I had promised in that post when I got the gate finished I would post that as well. The gate also was a nightmare that I am still working on to shave thickness off the frame as when it rains the wood swells and the gate won’t close without force. But my “gate mural” turned out okay. I am not an artist but I had fun, like I do with the adult coloring books.

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The flowers, rabbits and butterflies are wood cutouts that I purchased plain and then painted. The reason for the haphazard of wood pieces for the door was to find pieces to go with what already was done to try to make it look decent. I don’t have a saw so my options were limited. The tree had wooded leaves but they were a clumsy to adhere and did not look like what I wanted so I took them off and painted on leaves. I still have 2 more flowers to paint and 3 more butterflies. At least I will have continuous flowers in my yard.

I am kind of good at out of the box thinking to pull odd things together to make a decent end project work. That is mostly what this project involved. But the purpose of the fence being able to keep the dogs off a chain and still protected was the main purpose, and that we have. So it’s all good.

I am tying in again with this month’s Escapist Coloring Club prompt as this was fun at relieving my stress of the poor construction of the fence.

And remember, even when you are faced with difficult tasks ahead, if you keep a positive attitude and smother it in kindness, good usually always rises to the top.

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Sunshine’s Macro Monday, 5/25

Today my goal was to get the gate that I tore out due to very poor workmanship, rebuilt myself, even thought I have no skill in that regard. Now it is kind of haphazard but I think it will be cute when done. As I was finishing up priming it I saw something white in my lilies. I did not want a spider or bug nest in my lilies so when I went to investigate, and I found naughtiness going on. Well, it is spring so I guess it is acceptable, seeing its what they do this time of year.

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In trying to locate the type of butterfly, the internet called white butterflies cabbage butterflies but then there were over 1,000 variations of that white butterfly with a wide range of black spot colorations. The only black I saw on these were the  tiny black spot mid wing and there seem to be black stripes on the legs.

Regardless, I thought they were cute and hope they are not dangerous to my flowers. So I left them alone, being kind, even when I didn’t know if I should shew them away. I go with the philosophy of being kind even when it may not be right because being kind is always right.

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Come join in  on Sunshine’s Monday macro to see the beauty other’s have found to share.

Migration of the Monarch

It’s October and the time when the Monarch Butterflies head to Mexico or southern California. We don’t see a lot of them in my neck of the woods of Iowa but the smattering few that do happen by are quite beautiful. I saw several of them yesterday swooping around my dianthus so I was able to snap a few shots.

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God’s beauty

While the butterfly is a fragile creature, it has the fortitude to fly hundreds of miles to warmer climates for winter. Yet it is easily crushed with unkind acts. People seem stronger than butterflies but in reality they are just as fragile on the inside as the strongest butterfly, so always be kind. Let you kindness open the beautiful wings of warmth of the butterflies that are in side of us, so that the warmth grows to others.

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All creatures understand the fragility and beauty of kindness, and the necessity for its use.

Creation of Art by God, Butterflies

Spring is a time when things wake up as the quiet sleep of winter is gets wiped from our eyes. The trees are waking up and spitting out new leaves, the flowers are rising up from the ground and animal wildlife is poking out its head to see what’s new. I love watching the birds and get excited when a new one I had not seen before visits my feeder.

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Goldfinch, Downy Woodpecker, Cardinal

The beauty of God’s artwork in nature is amazing. But the most fascinating color work to me is the butterfly. I do not have a any around yet, but I hope to once it gets warmer and drys out a bit. But Irene reminded me this morning with her photo of a beautiful butterfly just how beautiful they are and I thought I would share Butterflywebsite.com pictures since I can not go outside today because again, it is raining. So I share these few pictures for you to enjoy, then go visit their site for others. Truly amazing creatures.  They listed three specie/subspecie which I will share as these are the common ones we see. My favorite is the Swallowtails, Papilionidae, of which they have 11 varieties listed. I download two beauties.

These are the Black Swallowtail and the Orchid Swallowtail. The Black Swallowtail has always been a favorite of mine.

The next group are the Whites & Sulphers, Pieridae, of which they have 7 varieties shown.

The next group are the Lycaenidae, of which they list 3 subspecie, The Coppers which they have 4 varieties shown,

The Hair Streak has 3 varieties shown,

And then the last of the Lycaenidae group is the Blue, which there are 4 varieties shown.

And there are more exotic ones I am sure that I have not pictured but these should bring a smile to you if you are having a similar wet raining day or if not maybe you are just enjoying God’s handiwork. But did you know these creatures were also educated and know their ABCs and 0-9 numbers? Yes. They even have them imprinted on their wings. As scientist began studying butterflies they started noticing shapes in their coloration resembling letters and numbers and I have always thought that fascinating. God in his ultimate creative design combined with a sense of humor. I enclose the the collage below.

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Always remember to smile as nature smiles. If we look hard enough we can see that God is always there even when we think he forgot about us. Always remember to show the gentle, smiling, love God placed inside you to be brought out through kindness.

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