Be patient with yourself.
I walked into the kitchen and said to my husband, “Good news, the butterfly is gone!” He gave me a puzzled but amused look. I then said, “Well, if it had died because of the pesticide and then gotten eaten by a lizard and then the lizard died from it and then a cat ate the lizard, I would have felt just horrible!”

My husband shook his head and teasingly told me that I may have really lost it this time. (Then we both laughed). Ranger, our lab, had discovered the butterfly on the wall in the backyard early in the morning and growled at it. I was concerned because 1) it wasn’t moving much and 2) it was well within Ranger’s reach. I kept watch and it hadn’t changed its location for a few hours but was still slightly moving here and there.

I was afraid that the pesticide we had just sprayed (which we only do a few times per year) had gotten it and it was dying. However, I then figured out, it wasn’t dying, it was changing! (Which made sense based on where it was located – a perfect spot for a cocoon).

I eventually got it onto a paper plate and put the paper plate in the front yard where it was protected and under plants but visible by someone looking outside of our window. It stayed there for a while which concerned me (again the pesticide fear), but then it was gone and I felt the need to make an announcement that all was well in the world for that moment.

This is a long post… lots of “blah, blah, blah” which I’m pretty good at, but watching the butterfly over a few hours reminded me of something very important (and the moral of this story): change and growth take time. We can’t always rush things and we can’t always expect instant results from our efforts. Patience and perseverance can provide us with amazing things in this life.

Have a blessed day and be patient with yourself ~ good things are coming your way! (And if you have a friend who needs to be reminded of this and you’d care to share this post with him or her, we would just love that!).

Thank you, Kim. I love what you wrote.
Thank you for your comment, Teresita! 🙂