sad tune for the butterfly with a broken wing

After getting 10 caterpillars mail ordered for her butterfly habitat (a Christmas gift), watching them eat & plump up, turn into chrysalises, and reemerge into 10 beautiful butterflies, Sydney decided yesterday was the day to set them free to enjoy the rest of their 2 weeks lives.


I thought she'd be sad to let them go, and maybe want to keep them in the habitat longer. She has loved watching each one dry it's wings and learn to fly after first coming out of the pupa, and feeding them sugar water on sliced oranges & flowers. But she told me she's actually been excited for this day.


Allie, Jack, and I watched her take each one out gently while explaining how she thought they were feeling...a little hesitant, because "they feel safe in there". She waited patiently, holding each until it decided to take flight, clapping and jumping with joy when it it did.


All of them had perfect wings and eventually took off, disappearing within a second or two,


except this one. Didn't take long to notice that one of it's wings was split in half. We watched as it tried to launch itself into the air and failed, no matter how hard it beat it's imperfect wings.

I explained to the kids, this butterfly's wing didn't develop right. Sydney said, it has a broken wing just like our baby will have a broken lip, but we can fix our baby. I said, yes exactly...wish we could fix this butterfly, so glad we can fix our baby.

Then Jack said, I'll play a sad tune for the broken butterfly...

Sydney made a little bed for it, and says she'll bring it flowers and take it outside every day, and bring it back in at night if it's too cold. She's not worried about birds eating it, because the colors on it's wings are a signal to the bird that it's poisonous.

But there are 2 she is still taking care of...one of the butterflies never flew away and stayed near the butterfly with the broken wings, although it's own wings appear normal. How sweet to think, perhaps a butterfly is capable of selfless love.

And I've been thinking, just because a butterfly's life is only 2 weeks doesn't mean it matters any less than our own.