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| Common Buckeye |
As airline passengers, we're instructed--should there ever be an emergency--to put on our own oxygen masks first before helping others. It's a physical reality that if we can't breathe, we can't help.
The same advice is used in the self-care field to illustrate how we must ensure our own emotional, spiritual, and physical health to be able to help others. All of us face difficult challenges and times in life--times when the burdens, stresses, and sadness are so great that we feel pushed to the limits.
This year has been one of those times for me--the personal and other challenges have been really tough...too complicated and difficult to share here. But we all face these times. Of course, I know I'm not alone--family, friends, and faith provide "oxygen" to help me through. I know others go through these times, too.
Another thing that provides oxygen for me, personally, is chasing butterflies. A few hours of hiking with a camera, snapping photos of butterflies, and later reporting them to citizen science sites can serve as balm to my challenged soul.
This post includes a few of the butterfly photos (and a couple of moths!) I collected during the past spring, summer, and fall. Reviewing them reminds me of the difficult thoughts on my mind as I was taking them. It also makes me happy...because I know how cathartic it was to see each butterfly, and to live in the moment of its unique beauty.
I don't include all the photos here--there were hundreds. Some were reported to citizen science organizations* even though the photo quality was poor. Others, particularly the Monarchs and the Viceroys, were so plentiful this season that I only included a few. Not all the butterflies, nor the photos, are perfect...but that's the point. They were real, they were flying free, and they provided great comfort. I include them here, generally, in order from spring through fall, but not necessarily in exact order. (Click on any image to enlarge it or to navigate through the Flickr album.)
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| Monarch |
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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail |
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| Monarch |
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| Giant Swallowtail |
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| Common Wood-Nymph |
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| Red Admiral |
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| Tawny Emperor |
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| Viceroy |
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| Eastern Tailed-Blue |
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| Common Wood-Nymph |
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| Monarchs |
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| Chickweed Geometer (moth) |
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| Monarch that I raised and released |
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| Clouded Sulphur |
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| Peck's Skipper |
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| Red-Spotted Purple |
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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail |
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| Eastern Comma |
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| Common Buckeye |
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| Monarch |
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| Red-Spotted Purple |
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| Pearl Crescent |
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| 'Summer' Spring Azure |
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| Monarch |
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| Red Admiral |
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| Corn Earworm (moth) |
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| Monarch |
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| Viceroy |
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| Red Admiral |
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| Monarch |
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| 'Summer' Spring Azure |
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| Viceroys |
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| Red Admiral |
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| Monarch |
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| Silver-Spotted Skipper |
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| Viceroys |
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| Monarch |
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| Clouded Sulphur |
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| Monarch |
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| Silver-Spotted Skipper |
How about you? What gives you "oxygen"?
*Here are just a few of the North American citizen science organizations that welcome reports of butterfly sightings: wisconsinbutterflies.org, journeynorth.org, e-butterfly.org, butterfliesandmoths.org.
