The Attacking Butterfly
Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia,
I saw a water puddle
ahead on the path. I angled my direction to
go around it on the part of
the path that wasn't covered by water and mud.
As I reached the puddle,
I was suddenly attacked! Yet I did nothing for
the attack was so
unpredictable and from a source so totally unexpected.
I was startled
as well as unhurt, despite having been struck four
or five times
already. I backed up a foot and my attacker
stopped attacking me.
Instead of attacking more, he hovered in the air on
graceful butterfly
wings in front of me. Had I been hurt I wouldn't
have found it amusing,
but I was unhurt, it was funny, and I was laughing.
After all, I was
being attacked by a butterfly!
Having stopped laughing, I took a step forward.
My attacker rushed me
again. He rammed me in the chest with his head
and body, striking me
over and over again with all his might, still to no
avail. For a second
time, I retreated a step while my attacker relented
in his attack. Yet
again, I tried moving forward. My attacker charged
me again. I was
rammed in the chest over and over again. I wasn't
sure what to do,
other than to retreat a third time. After all,
it's just not everyday
that one is attacked by a butterfly.
This time, though, I stepped back several paces to
look the situation
over. My attacker moved back as well to land
on the ground. That's
when I discovered why my attacker was charging me
only moments earlier.
He had a mate and she was dying. She was beside
the puddle where he
landed.
Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his
wings as if to fan
her. I could only admire the love and courage
of that butterfly in his
concern for his mate. He had taken it upon himself
to attack me for his
mate's sake, even though she was clearly dying and
I was so large. He
did so just to give her those extra few precious moments
of life, should
I have been careless enough to step on her.
Now I knew why and what he
was fighting for. There was really only one
option left for me. I
carefully made my way around the puddle to the other
side of the path,
though it was only inches wide and extremely muddy.
His courage in
attacking something thousands of times larger and
heavier than himself
just for his mate's safety justified it. I couldn't
do anything other
than reward him by walking on the more difficult side
of the puddle. He
had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed.
I left them in peace for those last few moments, cleaning
the mud from
my boots when I later reached my car.
Since then, I've always tried to remember the courage
of that butterfly
whenever I see huge obstacles facing me. I use
that butterfly's courage
as an inspiration and to remind myself that good things
are worth
fighting for.
David L. Kuzminski