When butterflies turn out to be moths

In the past few days I have realized something about myself.

If a butterfly flutters by beautifully, I take it in like a sign from God - what a majestic, beautiful creature, caressing the air with it's beautiful wings, on its way to sit sweetly on a beautiful flower somewhere. Oh this butterfly MUST be a sign that it will be a nice day.

If a moth flies by, oh man - it's on - MOTH get away from me! My anti-moth karate chops begin automatically. Moths, you don't seem to just fly by, you do a Top Gun style FLY-BY. Are you trying to bite me? Are you TRYING to fly into my mouth or hair? Why are you so creepy looking, with your short wings that you have to beat so hard just to stay up in the air - aren't you like the vampire of the flying insect world?

So you can imagine my surprise when our chrysalises that were supposedly butterflies turned out to be moths. At first I was in denial. Our six cute, cuddly, fuzzy, friendly caterpillars were so adorable, adopted by Sidney from her best friend Caitlin's backyard weeks ago. Just days after being brought to our house, those fuzzy little guys silked themselves into corners of their holding cell, and turned into chrysalises! It was amazing. My first time at this sort of science experiment.

But then they took too long, and google wasn't giving me the greatest of answers to my questions. You can't type in a search for "what in the world is in this chrysalis and why's it taking so darn long" and expect a good answer.

So we waited. I thought they were dead. But I didn't have the nerve to tell the girls my theory, so when Sid got a butterfly habitat for Christmas, I happily moved what I thought were dead chrysalises into the butterfly habitat. Then I worried more for these little lives that may or may not be dead inside their weird little shells. I moved them upstairs into a room where I thought they'd be shaken the least by Jack - my bedroom. I was wrong, they were still shaken, and yelled at, and blown on.

A few mornings ago we woke up and of course Sidney remembered to check her habitat. There were three baby moths, she said. I thought "well, they probably look like moths but are really butterflies trying to dry their wings out OH MY GOODNESS those are not cute little butterflies, those are going to tear a hole in the net and burrow into my ear at night or something freaky like that!" I only thought, I didn't say. I can't raise little wackos knowingly, they have to turn out that way all on their own.

As much as I wanted to let them out into the freezing cold, I didn't. I let them live for a few days in my bedroom (secretly hoping they'd turn into butterflies). One even got out when we tried to put sugar water in the habitat, flew up to my bedroom ceiling and I rescued it and put it back in. We finally let them go yesterday.

Yesterday was the day I realized I am way too judgemental toward moths. This led to a re-realization that I'm way too judgemental toward a lot of things. I have had invalid dislike and fear toward something because it wasn't as pretty as something else - how sad is that? I know little about them. I need to look into moths. It sounds silly, but it's true. I don't want to grow something in my house and not know what in the world it does! But my girls? They were in love with those moths no matter what they were or turned out to be. They have no prejudice - butterfly or moth, they raised those six beings and let them go yesterday and couldn't be more proud.

I watched those moths fly away and thought "I'm sorry guys, you really are kinda cool - you are like the underdog. Butterflies are like the beautiful smart sister, the one everyone says 'oh isn't she so beautiful and smart - she could be a model' about. Moths, you're like the hardworking sister who doesn't get the credit - the one who stays up late at night studying for those As because it just doesn't come naturally to you, but you never give up."
Then I found out moths only live a few days, so at least their struggle isn't too long. And their attraction to light - while it looks really funny sometimes because they seem disoriented, think about it - they are attracted to light. They live in darkness, attracted to light. Kind of a sweet symbolic reminder of living in the world and following the Lord.

They probably do some pretty gross stuff, too. I'll find that out in my research, I'm sure. And the next time someone gives me caterpillars they THINK are future PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLIES, I'll just laugh inside and think of my little moths, fluttering about, bumping into things, burning themselves on porch lights, just tryin' to figure the world out, searching for the light.

A butterfly = graceful and beautiful.
A moth = graceful in its own unique I-flutter-about-the-world-looking-crazy kind of way, but if you give it a chance its probably pretty cool.

There's a lesson in here somewhere. Here's to hoping I remember it the next time a 'moth' comes too close and I want to swat it away quickly.