If you love butterflies (and you should), you’ve probably heard of the amazing annual Monarch butterfly migration. 3000 miles those tiny, fragile wings have to flutter. And how and why do they do it?
Is that Monarch butterfly migration just a mysterious coincidence?
Yeah, right.
As I write this, it’s February 5, 2022. And I discovered that, on several calendars, February 5 is Western Monarch Day. That’s pretty cool. A day marked to acknowledge the feat of those beautiful, ultralight flying creatures.
Those amazing butterflies travel almost 3000 miles to get back to California from all over the western parts of America. And I read an article that said once “they” figured out what was going on with all those butterflies, their migration became quite a tourist attraction.
Back in 2017, I shared some information about the Monarch butterflies. And I also shared a little about how caterpillars liquefy themselves and morph into butterflies. Read the article, or even listen to it, in a podcast episode if you’d prefer not to read it. And that episode includes a very good song called “Shine In Your Glory.”
Anyway…
Monarch butterflies travel from western parts of the U.S. and Canada to California every winter. Some sources will tell you it’s just because they figured out it’s better for their survival rates. But that falls way short of a satisfactory explanation. And the real reason they can do that is so much more interesting.
But I’m not sure how interested you’ll be if and when you discover the complexity of design in each and every one of those beautiful creatures. Because that design implies a designer. And that might lead to a metamorphosis of your heart. And we can’t let that happen…now, can we?
Just think about it for a minute.
The flight path for those Monarch butterflies annual migration is so predictable people can plan a vacation stop to see them. And yet, so-called scientists would like you to believe they only exist because of random mutational changes. If that’s true, how do you explain caterpillar metamorphosis? And precise migration patterns? And all of that from the tiny brains of insects?
This year, as you set up your Western Monarch Day tree and light up your Monarch Day lights and put your butterfly presents under the tree, remember what they’ve gone through for you. And if that doesn’t make your heart flutter, then I’m not sure you even have one.
Soliloquy
Butterfly,
How can you fly when your smiles gone?
Dipping and diving and looking so splendid,
But your smile gone.
What is wrong?
Butterfly,
You’re gathering nectar
From flowers that have long since died.
Your thirst for their sweetness and long for completeness,
But the flowers have died.
Still you have tried.
While you fly above, I am living in love
Enjoying the peaceful tranquility…
Utopia, it’s that kind of a world
That you’ve brought to me, willingly.
Butterfly,
Sometimes when I watch you, I simply sigh.
Free as a child, and yet all the while, never saying a word.
Butterfly,
I want to see you laugh again,
And I want to see you smile again.
© 1975 Tony Funderburk
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