By mid-morning it had already been a rough day. Shep is on the tail end of sick, as is Ellery. Neko is halfway through sick. Tom is getting sick. Everyone is tired and grouchy. Between all three kids, we were probably up hourly.
It doesn’t help that it’s been grey and overcast for ages. On top of being sick, I think the weather has been bringing us down.
Jen was here to watch the kids so I could log a little time in the shop. Although we tell her to call us with any questions, she’s a super-experienced sitter, and has never called. So when my cell phone rang, and I saw it was her, I was worried.
So now we should backtrack to fall. On one fine, fall day Neko found a fat, green caterpillar in the yard. We humored her by letting her put it in the bug cage, thinking we would release it the next day. But the next day, the caterpillar was gone. Overnight, it had turned into a chrysalis.
We had done the whole caterpillar/chrysalis/butterfly thing before. Wait a week or so, and the buttefly emerges. But once we started doing some research we discovered that this particular caterpillar stays in the chrysalis stage ALL WINTER and emerges as a moth the following spring.
So it spent the entire winter in the mudroom. I’d glance at it periodically and think that I should really just throw the whole thing out. There’s no way that thing is still alive after months in a chrysalis with no food or water. But when I answered the phone today, Jen informed me that the moth had emerged.
I didn’t even know what to say. Although she was bouncing with excitement over the moth, I don’t think Neko ever doubted it would eventually emerge. Perhaps I should think like a four-year-old a bit more often. I can be a real skeptic sometimes.
By evening, the moth was fluttering around the cardboard box we had moved him to, so much that we were worried he would hurt his wings. We told Neko it was time to let him go. My parents and sisters came up to watch, and by the light of the porchlights, she let the moth go.
Later that night, I heard Neko talking to Shep, “I know you miss the moth, but we had to let him go. He has to go find his other moth friends.”
It may not seem like it most of the time, but she’s listening. And understanding. And the sun came out today. So maybe, just maybe, we’re gonna pull ourselves out of this grey-sky, germ covered funk and run headlong into spring.