Another hot Southern summer day, a scorcher but so pretty with the bright blue sky and the white fluffy clouds. I filled up the bird feeders this morning and soon as I got back to the porch Fatty the squirrel was hanging upside down raking sunflower seeds in his mouth lickety-split. I got the cooking oil spray and sprayed the bird feeder poles he visits. If it doesn’t rain that grease will keep him from climbing the poles for a day or so. I put new critter food in the ground feeder so maybe he’ll focus on those treats.

I sit on the porch religiously every night at 7 o’clock, watching Mother Nature paint a magnificient sunset with her watercolors, and search for the words to accurately describe the glorious colors of her paint brushes. Today she hid her painting of sunset behind a cover of vanilla clouds but I know it was beautiful by the soft pink that managed to peak out just as the day’s light paled. Father Sky escorted the sun down the horizon in her sterling silver formal gown but the pageant of sunset played out behind the clouds. I know it was magnificent and I look forward to watching her rendering of the sunset tomorrow.

The butterflies are back visiting my yard and I followed them all around the zinnias today. They are beautiful, humble little critters and sat patiently or tap danced happily while I took numerous photos of them on the blossoms. My little flower garden has been full of honey bees and bumble bees and visiting butterflies. The songbirds were flitting around the garden bird feeders. I sat in the old white rocking chair and watched the butterflies drinking nectar from the vivid zinnia blooms, slowly warming their wings in the warm sunshine, saying their prayers of thanks for the wondrous day. The bumble bees were gathering the yellow pollen in their little leg baskets. So delightful to watch nature and the morning unfold so beautifully.

“Be like a butterfly and a flower — beautiful and sought after, yet unassuming and gentle,” Juarez Kings. What a wonderful compliment for two of my favorite things, butterflies and flowers. So many beautiful quotes about butterflies. I whiled the afternoon away today searching for butterfly quotes. Ponce Denis says, “The butterfly is a flying flower. The flower is a tethered butterfly.” I love this imagery! Watch the butterflies fly, dancing in their glorious colors, pirouetting in the sunshine as the flower blooms wave while they frolic in the summer breeze.

The butterfly is a Christian symbol of the resurrection. Butterflies go through a metamorphosis, transferring from a crawling caterpillar to a wondrously colored creature called a butterfly. When we accept Jesus into our hearts and follow his teachings we are given a new spirit. We’re changed, transformed by God’s love and grace. 2 Corinthians 5:17 reads, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

We can take advice from the butterfly, too. “The butterfly does not look back upon its caterpillar self, either fondly or wishfully; it simply flies on,” Ravindranath Tagore. We need to learn to fly on, too. I think Steve Maraboli says it best, “Forget yesterday — it has already forgotten you. Don’t sweat tomorrow — you haven’t even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift — today.” Live for today for we’re not promised a tomorrow.

I think butterflies are a symbol of hope, too. No matter how we feel trapped in our lives, we have God’s promise of a new day and a new life. When life is dark we can look to God for light. We can go through a transformation, just like the butterfly, when we cocoon ourselves in our spiritual beliefs. We all have the ability to change. It just takes determination, perseverance, and patience. We just need to put our trust in God and he’ll show us how to soar on our butterfly wings.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” God has covered the Earth with beauty. We don’t have to travel to find it, we live in it.

Seeing a butterfly can symbolize change and joy and new beginnings. Some believe when a butterfly lands on you, a spirit is coming to visit. Last summer a big monarch butterfly lit on my cheek, kissing my face, doing a tap dance with his skinny little black legs. I knew who it was and I loved the message!

“From creeping chrysalis to dancing sky, the butterfly teaches us that beauty blooms after struggle.” – Scott Hammell