My husband and I were out walking the rail trail this morning when we came across a small monarch butterly surrounding something. We weren’t sure what it was, but upon closer inspection it was the wing of a deceased monarch – yellow in color. We don’t know what caused the death, but we were fascinated by this one lone observer who would dart and swoop over the carcass in what could only be called a spirit dance. We walked by, fascinated by this amazing call to life displayed by the winged creature. A bit further down the trail we came upon a red irish setter out alone. Unusual, to say the least, that a dog be wandering the trail with no owner in site and no leash, but he was well behaved and carrying a stick. He ignored us and continued on his way to the river.

The remainder of our five mile trek was spent deep in conversation about the updates we were going to do to our backyard in preparation for the alpacas moving in and about how to contain the chickens. We spoke about a funeral for a local businessman and the turn of life as two of our children will head to college in the fall ; one for the first time and one in his second year. We have two left at home, but the pulse of the family has changed and we feel ourselves slowing down and noticing more. Which brings me back to the dog and the butterfly.

On our return loop of the trail we came to the same spot were we had spotted the carcass and the lone butterfly dancer. Now, instead, there were six butterflies surrounding the carcass in a perfectly organized ring, and a red irish setter with a stick in his mouth observing the goings on. We were in awe. The butterflies had their wings closed and the dog had his head bowed. It was a butterfly funeral if I have ever seen one, and I was deeply moved. As we carefully stood to the side to watch, the dog ambled slowly back up the hill from where I first saw him appear and the butterflies began a dance that would steal your breath away. They swooped, they pirouetted and they circled their fallen friend and then one by one they alighted on a nearby tree for a moment of silence. I truly felt I was in the presence of angels and my husband and I stopped at the next bench to offer a prayer for the life of the butterfly. How beautiful!

My only regret, my camera was at home, but upon searching the web I found a similar circle. This is what it looked like: