The Wonder of a Monarch Butterfly

It's one of those glorious summer/fall days in September and I've just come in from a trip out onto the Eastern Shore. It's the kind of day where the sunlight seems a bit lower than you're used to and it always makes me want to bake an apple pie or make oatmeal raisin cookies. That's what I've evolved to as a a member of my species. So, my oven is preheating and the Granny Smith apples are sitting on the kitchen counter. The pie cloth is spread out and the rolling pin is waiting to be dusted. Yes, I still make my own crust and I cut up my apples and I throw in however much butter and cinnamon I deem appropriate. No canned filling for this girl.

On the trip we headed out to St. Michael's with a stop along the way for oyster stew at the Fisherman's Inn. This time of year and all through the gray days of February that stew is a joy to inhale. They have the best saltines there, too. Not the oyster crackers but the square saltines made by Westminster. Just the right crunch and right amount of everything.

We drove through St. Michael's and on out to Tilghman's Island. If you keep going all the way out to the tip of the island you'll find yourself in full view of a Naval Research Lab that appears to have been taken over by a family of osprey. Then, if you're really determined to keep going, you can park (or drive which I don't recommend) by the Lab and walk through the daunting gate. The water is on your right. Today it was choppy and gray. There were some committed fishermen with their hoods up around their heads facing out to the water as though they did not want to be seen. It reminded me very much of Inchon in South Korea. The earth around them was disturbed by construction vehicles and due to the rain yesterday there were some puddles, some mud, and some just moist red dirt.

On the left side of our rutted path were native bushes - some multi-flora but I'm pretty sure some spice bushes. Beyond them were the skeletons of trees topped with osprey nests. The osprey were coming and going and truly putting the human fisherpeople to shame. Talons clutched gleaming fish headed to the nests. Persimmon trees marched along the way.

It was a magical place - totally unexpected and most magical when we found the Black Walnut Inn at the end of the road and stopped short to watch the jewels glittering on the spice bushes that edged the driveway coming and going to the inn. The jewels were monarch butterflies, and perhaps a red admiral, and a small one we couldn't name. You know all of those National Geographic specials you've seen where the flock of butterflies dances down onto trees and then quivers all over the leaves? Yep. That's it. It was real and it was right in front of us.

I was so thankful that we had found this very special moment in the monarch world. They sipped water from the mud and they feasted on the tight blossoms of the spice bush.

I have to tell you that I am currently re-reading SARAH PLAIN AND TALL to prepare to interview Patricia MacLachlan. The power of that little book is coming back to me. There is such strength in Sarah. She is so willing to risk loving life in spite of the challenges that come her way and she shows us how valuable the simple things like shells and sheep and hay dunes truly are. I look at the world around us and I wonder: Will our children carry on this wonder? As a PTSA president when my kids were in high school, I used to write a column for the school newspaper and I asked the parents to think ahead to Thanksgiving in 10 or 15 or even 20 years. You are sitting down with your children who are now grown. Who do you want to have sitting across from you? A child who has grown into someone you can love, respect and admire? Of course. How do you do that?

Well, one way, for me at least, is to share the wonders with children. And to preserve those wonders for those children. In his latest book, THE DAY THE STONES WALKED, T.A. Barron tells a story of a boy who lives on Easter Island. There is a wonderful bond between that boy and his mother and especially with his father. The boy feels his heritage very strongly. He feels his natural world very strongly. Then danger strikes and what will reach out from his world to save him?

In the author's note, T.A.Barron talks about the importance of teaching our children to safeguard and cherish our natural wonders. A child who can do that will grow to be a man or a woman that you want to eat your turkey with. They become wonders in themselves.

So, I cherish my time with the monarchs. They knew to migrate down through the Eastern Shore and the spice bush knew to be ready with the banquet. Civility at its finest. As for me,
my family just noticed the pie makings on the kitchen counter and I'm going to go finish slicing apples. Lucky to have had a such a day.