Monarch Event
Like everyone else I know, I’ve been attentive to the monarch situation. We have about 25 acres of restored prairie on our property, replete with milkweed. Still, in the past five years there have been fewer and fewer monarchs fluttering around the house, garden, and prairie. It’s been dramatic. And scary. And disheartening.
This summer I saw more Facebook posts than usual about friends who are bringing milkweed and caterpillars indoors to hatch monarchs. They feed them, empty the waste daily from the airy cages, and once the chrysalis has discharged its tenant, set it free in the garden.
One friend said that 90% of the caterpillars don’t make it to butterfly stage in the wild. But the idea of trying to save the monarchs one at a time, or ten, or twenty, was just very hard to consider. I have to admit to a certain heaviness about the whole thing.
Then two weeks ago my brother-in-law said I should visit the pine grove along the north side of the property. To see the monarchs.
The first visit I just spent gasping. Hundreds of monarchs clustered on the branches and flew up as I approached. I took a few ineffective photos and ran to my computer to post — Have hope! Be heartened! It’s working, my milkweed friends!
By the next week, there were thousands of monarchs in there. I started inviting people over to see and experience it, because it’s nearly impossible to capture in a photo. And everyone who came was astonished.
They also brought more stories about the terrible odds, mostly false. One said these will probably all die here, since it takes three generations to make the flight. Actually, it takes three generations to make the migration north, but then a “super generation” flies all the way south to begin the cycle again in the Mexican forest of Sierra Chincua. This is the super generation!
Another said she heard that many are eaten by birds. It is true that 15% of the butterflies are eaten by birds, but only when they are overwintering in Mexico, not here.
We also wondered why they were flocking and clustering in a pine grove. According to National Geographic, pine forests hold a consistent temperature, and cool temperatures allow the monarchs to slow their metabolism and conserve energy for the flight.
One friend said that a Christian retreat organizer brought in a chrysalis on a branch to illustrate life, death, and resurrection. They talked about resurrection on the day the butterfly emerged.
This morning as I walked into the grove, a couple hundred monarchs rose at once from a single tree. I could hear them in the moment they took flight, the rustle of wings, branches — angels, souls — and my spirit rose within me and I laughed with joy.
If this is Resurrection, I thought, bring it on.
