Clutch the Sky

So there is a random Monarch Butterfly attached to the ceiling of my screen porch.

He's been there since yesterday afternoon. He's survived the torrential downpour of a Florida thunderstorm and continues to hang upside down, seemingly relaxed. Every now and then he'll gently open his wings and close them again, so I'll see random flashes of orange against the cerulean screened sky. Even as the breeze threatens to violently tear him off the screen, he seems perfectly content to stay there all day.

Earlier today I was outside painting, and I noticed him fluttering about, trying to break through the (invisible to him) barrier that is supposed to keep my pool clear of debris.

He was trying so valiantly to get outside. I suppose I could have gotten my pool net and caught him, but last time I tried that with another butterfly, I horribly tore up his wings and felt so ashamed when I had to let him go outside with tattered wings that barely allowed him to fly.

After all, butterflies don't live very long. A couple weeks at most.

So I have left him to his fate. Clutching the sky. Seemingly content.

I wonder if he realizes, that he's going to die. Surely without some sustenance soon, he'll starve to death. The most interesting thing about this, as that despite his certain doom, he doesn't appear to be complaining.

He's not whining about how unfair all of this is. He's not desperately fluttering about, still trying to find a way out of this hellish invisible banner that is keeping him from what he was meant to do.
To fly.

Instead, he seems to be accepting his fate, and in no small feat, he is still attempting to do what His maker created him to do.
He was made to fly. So he's clutching the sky, with all his might. Fulfilling his purpose as only a butterfly can.
As I wrote that, as if on cue, he flexed his wings again as if to tell me I'm right.

I guess I can learn a lesson from one of God's most beautiful and frail creatures. Even when it seems like I'm being kept from the sky, I'm not going to stop trying to attain it.

I like butterflies.