Lepidoptera Laughs

Have you heard the butterfly laughs this year? The scientific name for these amazingly beautifully creatures is "lepidoptera," which means scaled wings. All I know is that these painted angels have always mystified we big creatures who observer them.

Why do they laugh at us big eyed creatures? Some butterflies only live four days. The average age of one of these lighter than air flower hoppers is one month. They laugh because they catch us worrying about tomorrow. We who have many more days than the lepidoteria spend so many of those days worrying.

A butterfly does not have "time" to worry. With their tiny legs...I guess you call them legs...they "taste" the flower below them. They help us pollinate our plants, they play with the wind, they view the world with the 6,000 lenses in their tiny eyes, and then they die.

They seem to take themselves "lightly." They weigh about the same as two rose petals. From the tiny egg that is planted on a remote leaf their almost unseen presence grows 27,000 times the size of that egg before we get to see them dance in front of us...and laugh.

The old wisdom says, "So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Another observer of nature once looked at his worry filled buddies and said, "Look at the flowers of the field, do they worry?" I bet he said something about butterflies too but no one wrote it down.

So today...find some time and listen to the butterflies laugh at us for worrying so much. O how I need this lepidoptera lesson.
Bless you,
jody jseymour@davidsonumc.org