I’m not sure how I feel about finding this…..

This is the butterfly that’s been living in a cocoon in our batcave all winter. It’s emerged today and only survived as far as the door of the batcave.

I should dislike it because it and probably several dozen of its brothers and sisters ate their way through our broccoli last summer, completely decimating it and rendering it useless to us.

However, my survival instinct and my love of all of these little critters, no matter how much damage they do to my crops and garden still makes me admire the tenacity of a creature that has trekked a great distance from its birthplace across the garden and into our toilet. It’s made its way up the wall and onto the ceiling, spinning its cocoon as a safe refuge for the winter.

Over the winter, it’s changed form into the beautiful thing that is a butterfly, only to find itself die before reaching the outdoors.

So instead of dislike or pleasure at its demise, I feel sad and miserable that it never got to sample our wonderful air or to eat my broccoli.

Likewise, the rabbits that are eating my roses and my acers are to be applauded for their sheer will to survive. So too are all of the other critters whose space we share for, after all, it’s us who are the interlopers, us who have come here and tried to tame this harsh, wild world.

It’s us who don’t really belong here. We’re the newcomers. I wish so fervently that this butterfly had survived to see the out doors but it did not.

Boggling eyes were my subject last year!