Magical Moments

Our bluebirds seem to have vacated the premises for the summer, BUT to our delight, the butterflies have come around. Not just any butterflies, either, these are huge tiger swallowtail butterflies. They look like monarchs in that they have the same coloring, yellow with black stripes, but these have a small tail at the bottom of each wing; hence, swallowtails. From wingtip to wingtip they are about four inches long and close to that from top to bottom.

We have a bush with small pink flowers outside the kitchen window and it’s a favorite spot for these beauties. They perform a ballet for us fluttering up and down and around the bush while we watch entranced from inside.

The other morning I looked out and saw what I later learned were a male  and a female swallowtail. The male is bright with black and yellow and the female is more a blue-grey. They danced around the bush and each other for hours. I’ve not seen the female since, but those hours when they were together were magical.

The next day I looked out and saw three males on the bush at the same time. Talk about enchantment! That little bush was alive with flying tigers. One flew off but the other two stayed around for a long time.

I miss my blue birds but I do believe the butterflies were sent to make up for their absence.

On a far different note, I submitted a humorous story to Chicken Soup for the Soul two and a half years ago and received word this month that it was accepted and will be in the November issue of CSFS, Age is Just a Number. The moral is: Never give up!

My story is called High Flying and is about me sky diving. At age sixty. In tandem. With an instructor attached to my back. From three miles up.

There are so many people in our writing group that have been accepted for various issues of CSFS, that they’re called the Chicken Coop. Well, I just gained admittance into the Coop along with another member who was accepted for the first time. I didn’t think I cared that I wasn’t in the Coop, but as soon as CSFS accepted my story, I found out just how much I did care.

So, wings are where it’s at right now—butterfly wings and chicken wings.

Quote of the Day: Wings are not only for birds; they are also for minds. Toller Cranston