SERENDIPITY: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for; also : an instance of this

Thanks to everyone who read my blog posts and commented about the photos and commentary about the little caterpillar in my kitchen, her pupa and subsequent birth. 

Once in a while, life gives us these unexpected gifts, the arrival of a hummingbird at a new feeder, newborn fawns in the backyard, a waft of sweet pea fragrance floating with the breeze in through an open window.

My stepdaughter, who has spent the last year living in a remote island off the coast of British Columbia conveyed a story to me recently about a conversation she had with a long time resident on this island. They were out in a boat when they spotted a bald eagle "up close and personal." Both silenced by its beauty they stopped to observe. The long time resident, after this lengthy pause, looked at the bird, then to her and said "It Never Gets Old." 

I felt blessed to have the privelege of getting to observe and photograph the metamorphosis of the little Cabbage Butterfly.  And yes, I'd have to agree one could say it was serendipitous given my involvement with The Butterfly Project.  But, what I thought was even more worthy of being labeled Serendipitous was the arrival of the group of butterflies below during the same time the butterfly emerged from her cocoon.

It had been weeks since any new butterflies have arrived at my doorstep.  Unlike the first months of the project where butterflies arrived pretty much on a daily basis.  And so when Christine Cuthbert's envelope arrived, my mind travelled back into those bittersweet feelings of  gratitude and wonder combined with the sadness again for the memory of the Holocaust children.  But, what I wasn't at all prepared for was her motivation for creating these butterflies.  Christine enclosed a beautiful card of hollyhocks and forget-me-nots with butterflies floating above.  And inside the card read in part:

"...I spent my childhood studying the Holocaust.  I saw everything and read everything I could including the stories of the children in the Warsaw Ghetto and Anne Frank.  

I believe in some way they helped me to survive a horrific childhood  

All the children lost through war, poverty, violence and atrocity hold a special place in my heart...."

The best way for me to describe the impact Christine's note and butterflies had on me is to share with you part of an email I wrote to her in response....

"...The hours of love you’ve poured into these pieces or art – I can’t fully imagine how many thousands of thoughts and memories and feelings of your past, present and dreams of the future they contain.  It baffles me.  I don’t want to be overly presumptuous.    But, my sense is that you’ve  channelled your deepest scars into each of these butterflies with  so much color and texture and shape, form, line – Beauty.  The result is a pure uncensored expression of Beauty.

To then package them up and send them away to serve as Tributes to the Children of the Holocaust?   Well, the only word that I know to describe your act of Pure Unselfishness is Grace...."

And this is also why,  I named our little Cabbage Butterfly Christine Grace...

Christine Cuthbert shares her artistic musings and loving thoughts on  her blog Paisley and Peacock Emporium. 

And thank you Christine for your amazing contributions to The Butterfly Effect -

all of the above butterflies created by 

Christine Cuthbert

Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada

http://paisleyandpeacockemporium.blogspot.com

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