After weeks of intensive care, my little friends have taken to the skies now. One by one, off into the vault of blue autumn skies, peering down at brightly colored trees, cities, meadows, forests, and lakes, the wind on their wings. They are feeling freedom that I could never imagine. For me, sort of like a mother with an empty nest now, I can only hope and ask the universe for their safe passage to their destination.

It seems like yesterday that they were just little white dots on some decaying leaves in a Petri dish. I watched them in their mighty struggles with empathy and concern. I labored in their service gladly. In the spirit of poetic license I assign to them human qualities, such as bravery, tenacity, miraculous, mystical, and spectacular.

I am especially impressed with the caterpillars and what seems to me like a huge leap of faith and acceptance of fate when they go for that last climb to let the mystery happen. We can learn a lot from them, especially at my age, observing how willingly they submit to their fate, perhaps somehow knowing that it is not really the end but the beginning of a great adventure.

Some will say they are but little automatons blindly going through their assigned behaviors but in my heart I think they are much greater than that.

Jan LeVesque—Monarch Watch DPLEX listserv