Monday, June 12, 2017

Royalty in the Making: Monarchs and Me


Marcia Moston

A quick, simple stop at the nursery for a couple of knock out rose bushes turned into a month’s worth of worry and wonder.

I was all ready to check out when the attendant, Maxine, held up a pot with a solitary plant. “In two weeks this will be a monarch butterfly.” I stared at the acorn-shaped chrysalis suspended by a tiny strand from the underside of a leaf.

Like any other school child, at some point in my elementary education, I had learned about the four stages of a butterfly, but although I had dutifully memorized diagrams in my textbook, I had never witnessed this transformation. Maxine examined another plant, found a tiny larva on the underside of a leaf, held it up for me to see and smiled.

There’s a time for learning facts, and there’s a time for experiencing wonder. I was ready for wonder.