30 Aug 2012

Lessons & Reflections from the National Butterfly Center

I feel like I am late to the party. Those of you who've been "conservation conscious" for many years, will probably find my newness to all this amusing, at best; but here goes....

In six weeks, at the National Butterfly Center, I've started to take more walks. Not the 'power mile'-type I do around my neighborhood with my Jack Russell, Lucy, but slow, meandering ones. Walks where I stop, look, and listen. The best thing about this is I am seeing things I've been robbed of experiencing in the past. My agenda always kept me moving, and the little dictator that makes my mental lists and monitors my daily progress drowned out the singing birds and the chirping frogs, the drone of the cicadas and the whistling crickets.

It's hard to appreciate the beauty and brilliance of our natural world, if you cannot see it; so I find myself suggesting people, "Come talk a walk with me." It's true, I may not be able to name the butterflies, lizards or plants we see along the way, but my enthusiasm for them is contagious.

Excitement, not expertise, brought me to this place, and it is growing. My prayer is that it will not be contained at the Center or confined to the community—better, it should spread!

So, if you are reading this, come, take a walk with me, please.