Yesterday I was walking the puppies in the backyard when something fluttering on the ground caught my eye. It was a gorgeous red-spotted purple butterfly (why they named it purple when it's mostly blue I have no idea), a species I've only seen a few times here.
It didn't fly away from us, so I put the dogs on the porch and went back with my camera to see if I could get some pics of it before it took off. That was when I realized why it was fluttering on the ground. One of its wings was mostly gone, probably from a bird attack.
These butterflies live only a week or two so they can mate and lay their eggs. I know there are a million butterflies around now, too, so others will live on and continue the lifecycle of their species. Still, it made me feel terribly sad to see that while it kept trying to launch itself off the ground, this one would never fly again.
Life seems unfair and at times quite scary, but perhaps never more so than now. With the hatred, violence and death that seems to obsess so many I often despair of our species. But there is only so much we can do during our brief time here, and this butterfly reminded me of that. Let's fly while we still can.
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