Lesson from a Red Admiral Butterfly
I befriended this little injured butterfly earlier this week. Unfortunately she only lasted a few days because she couldn't fly, and something eventually got her. But during her time in my garden, I hung out with her quite often and she inspired me to look into her species.
She's a red admiral, which is a butterfly I see fairly often around here. And when I looked into red admirals, I learned that their host plant is stinging nettle, and I have a large potted patch of nettles in my garden, because I enjoy eating them.
I know most of you probably think that's insane, but when you cook them, or blend them really well, their stingers are no longer active, and I find them delicious.
Several weeks ago, while harvesting some of my nettles, I noticed a spikey caterpillar curled up in one of the leaves. And it was during nettles eating season, so I was worried that a bunch of caterpillars were going to eat my nettles before I could get to them.
Rather than doing any research into it, I simply cut the curled up leaf off the plant, and moved it to another section of the yard. A couple of days later, I saw another curled up leaf, but in this one was a chrysalis. I really didn't see much leaf damage around the chrysalis, so I just let it be.
Well during my investigations into the red admiral butterfly, I learned that that spikey caterpillar was its larva and that gray chrysalis belonged to it as well. And really, they didn't do much damage at all to my massive nettles patch. I was able to eat all that I wanted and also share with them and there's still a ton left (though it's past its edibility stage at this point). It made me a little sad to think that that caterpillar that I had removed most likely never grew into a beautiful little butterfly. And it got me thinking about my reactivity to garden pests.
This incident made me realize that I should be doing more observation and investigation before taking any action against perceived pests. When I see something eating my garden my initial thought is "danger, that's the enemy" when I really do need to be approaching the situation from a place of curiosity, instead. Humans have become so disintegrated from nature that the majority of us very unfortunately have no idea what anything is. I think it's mainly our ignorance that's having such a destructive affect on the natural world around us. I don't think anyone - well, maybe some a-holes out there - has the actual intention to destroy our world's magical ecosystems. I’m now going to dedicate myself to an even deeper level of curiosity and learning about my natural neighbors, because it feels like the responsible thing to do.
So thank you for the lesson and the inspiration little red admiral butterfly.
Hi, I’m Kristen!
I envision a world where you and I rediscover what it is to be human, through connection with ourselves, each other and the natural world around us.