Timothy Turtle: Power Animal

http://www.webcoves.com/circles/turtle.html

One of the other wonderful surprises we encountered in the Butterfly exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia was this turtle.  See how beautifully 'she' is posing for us?  After I finished, she slid off of the rock and went into the water.  How lucky for me that she was up on the stone - still ane posing - before she let herself slide off into the water.  When I posted her on Facebook, a number of people talked about turtle being their totem / animal guide.  A few years back, I went on a vision quest.  I thought that nothing would happen - me of little faith.  I ended up goingi to our lake in Pitman and meeting turtle.  She took me down under the water to see the beavers.  They had just destroyed my favorite willow tree at Alcyon Lake and I wanted to ask them WHY this and why now?  they were snugly in their living spaces and had nothing to say!!  It was a wonderful experience - I looked up the significance of the turtle and realized that I had to keep practicing the patience.  A few months ago, that became a stronger lesson - it's never easy to understand WHY from someone else's perspective but lesson learned...for today.

Butterflies are free...sort of...

What in the world is going on?  Remember I shared that we were going to the Butterfly exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia?  Well, go we did.  It was like going to the tropics with the temps at 85 and the humidity at 80%!  Sweat dripped off of our bodies, dehydrated us and make my eyes burn, but we took off coats and extra layers and stayed with these magnificent beings for more than 3 hours!  It was a perfect place for my BE STILL philosophy to be in place - a perfect place.  When we first arrived, Chris told us about the place, a few guidelines and shared some common types of butterflies.  He said, "If a butterfly lands on  you, it means you are lucky!"  Can you imagine my glee when more than EIGHT landed on me?  Two - like the owl butterfly in this picture, stayed for a lengthy visit and Chris had to take them and send them on their way when we left for lunch.  For this adventure, I can use the word awesome and so look forward to return trips AND finding more butterfly environments in other places we travel!  We saw the chrysallis arriving, being sorted and hanging in a special incubator to grow and hatch - we saw some that had just hatched and others that were mating.  The only thing missing - there are no 'host' plants because it is a conrolled environment.  That my friends is for us to see in the natural outdoors - until the butterflies come again for the summer - this was close to perfection! 

Butterfly Buddies!!

Last year I went on an adventure to visit my friend Beth in Iowa.  One day we decided to travel west in the state - on our way to Omaha to meet up with our friend Heather.  We were traveling on the straight ahead highway when I saw a sign for Bridges of Madison County.  We made a detour so that I could see one of the covered bridges.  While we were walking back to the car, I found this butterfly on the ground.  It's wings seemed to continue to flicker so I gently picked it up and we put it on my leg, resting on my jeans in the bright warm sunshine.  Maybe it would come back to life.  We saw some motion - maybe a few wiggles and a bit down the road, Beth stopped the car and she put it gently by the side of the road - hopefully it might come back to life and go off to find its friends.
Now we were butterfly buddies - connected by our memory - and connected to the fact of our attempt to rescue the butterfly.
A few weeks ago, I met a new friend - Devorah Ahavah - means love you know - and we talked about working together - her poetry and my photography.  One of the poems we chose to focus on is called Butterfly Buddies - how totally appropriate.  Here are just a few snippets of the poem
                "Hi, I'm Dana.  I'm a caterpillar.
                  I want a full life - but not one of fluff and filler"
 It's about Dana's journey as a caterpillar and what happens to her on that adventure.  She talks about her friend Dan, another butterfly and how he fixed his view on the world versus how she did it (not giving away the story though!!)
Dana talks about change - METAMORPHOSIS - what happened to her and what lessons she taught/shared with Dan.   The poem ends like this
       "Butterfly Buddies - we'll float on the breeze,
         bringing beauty to the world, if you please."
That's our intention - maybe Devorah Ahavah and I are Butterfly Buddies.  We know we totally value the beauty in the world and that we bring it to others.   This week Bill and I are going to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences Museum in Philadelphia.  I can only imagine our adventures and what we will see!!  Be sure that I will share...and then you can read then when our book is ready!!