Wind Beneath My Wings: First Monarch of Summer!

It is ramping up to be a hot week, which frequently happens in mid- to late July. We're expecting temperatures around 94 degrees F on Friday. Yuck! I am no lover of the heat, but I do appreciate the opportunity to see butterflies, and it's time for the monarchs' return.

I had a feeling that I needed to go to Autumn Meadow Park for my morning walk, and so I did that. There is a stand of flowers there that were glorious last summer, and they were full of butterflies.

So that is where I went, and I was rewarded for my efforts by sighting my first monarch of the season. It sat and sipped, and posed prettily for me. So here is a favorite picture from the photo set: a ventral view of my first monarch, sitting there looking like an orange stained glass window.

My big sister Barb was always the butterfly girl, and when the monarchs return, I often think of her. She died on the 20th of July in 2019, and that was always a hard date for me after that, until we reclaimed that day last week, with a kiss seen and heard around the world. Wrapped in love, we took it back.

I miss my sister and I celebrate her life. But I wonder if she would even believe all of the things that have happened to our family in the past few years. In some ways, there is stuff I'm sorta glad she missed (like the pandemic, for one). But on the hardest of days, sometimes I wished for her. I thought, Things would be better, if only Barb were here.

I wanted a soundtrack song about wings for this beautiful orange butterfly, and here is one I send out into the blue blue sky, and higher, and higher even, until it gets to Heaven where my sister can hear it. The song is Bette Midler, with Wind Beneath My Wings.

Did you ever know that you're my hero
And everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle
For you are the wind beneath my wings