Last month I took a trip to the Butterfly Pavilion and I must say I was super excited. I had never been before but I had always wanted to go, and now that I have gone I can honestly say I think I love butterflies a lot more than I have admitted to myself over the years.
My love for butterflies came about in a very strange way. I cannot recall the exact age I fell in love with them, but if I had to guess I was probably around 8 years old. When I was younger my parents always had music playing. My dad would play it when my uncles were over and they were playing cards. Music would play when we were cleaning. My mother listened to music every night before bed (which was a habit I eventually adopted). I mean music was always playing in my house.
And not just random music, but music that knew how to make you feel all kinds of emotions. From the good to the bad, the music in our house spoke to my soul.
Well one of my parents favorite artist was the legend herself, Mariah Carey. I remember hearing this song called Butterfly, which is an absolutely beautiful song. If you have not heard it, after you read this post go listen to it. Such a beautiful message.
Anyways, I had heard this song Butterfly and I just remember falling in love with it. Mind you at the time I had no idea who Mariah Carey was, what songs she sung, or anything like that. My parents also kept a collection of their music, and one day I was looking through my dad’s music crate when I came across a bunch of Mariah Carey CDs.
Something you should know, if you haven’t caught on yet, is that my family loves Mariah!
Remember, I did not know who this amazing woman was. I knew no songs by her. But when I saw her albums I was immediately drawn to her beauty. I remember thinking she was such a beautiful woman. And I picked that album up, I opened it, and I looked through the picture book. I feel so in love with her image.
Then I stumbled upon a picture of her glorious smile with a butterfly resting ever so slightly on her finger. And I remember thinking it was such a beautiful picture. I looked at the back of the album, scrolled through the songs, and saw the one called Butterfly.
Now I don’t remember how I ended up hearing the song again (I probably just asked my dad, or he played the album in the car one day), but when I heard it I knew it was the song that I fell in love with.
Pretty much from that moment forward I fell in love with Mariah, and I fell in love with butterflies.
The really ironic thing about this (if you consider it ironic, I don’t) is that I am absolutely terrified of moths.
I do not like them not one bit.
And my dad use to capture them in the summertime and torture me with them by trying to throw them on me, or leaving them dead lying next to my bed or on my pillow. I think their look did not attract me to them but the fact that he tortured me with them is what created the fear.
Either way I was terrified. And he use to always tell me “they are just an ugly butterfly”. Logically I knew this to be true but somewhere within that fear of moths and that love for butterflies I could not comprehend this. And I have always been this way, even today I still have a fear of moths, a love for butterflies, and they are not one in the same to me.
So being able to finally go to the Butterfly Pavilion was sort of like a dream come true, haha.
I expected a lot of butterflies to be all over but to my surprise there were very little. There were also other beautiful creatures to see, which was a huge surprise to me, but none the less it was a beautiful experience.
And there wasn’t a single moth in sight!
I know there are a ton of butterfly species out there but truth be told I don’t love them enough to know all there is to know about butterflies. I don’t even know half of the species that exist in this world. I probably only about two.
But my favorite butterfly is the monarch butterfly and I think I was naturally attracted to it because its design and colors make me think of tigers. If you didn’t know tigers are my favorite animal. I didn’t get to see any monarch butterflies but that’s ok. The simple fact that I got to see a good amount of them (maybe around thirty) all in one room, each representing a different species, just flying around so freely, was enough to warm my soul.
Which leads me to some fun facts about butterflies:
Fact #1
There are about 24,000 species of butterflies (which is why I cannot name half).
Fact #2
Monarch butterflies migrate to get away from the cold (but they are not the only butterflies that migrate)
Fat #3
An adult butterfly has a short life. They can live up to four weeks. An entire life cycle ranges from two to eight months (dependent upon the species) with migratory butterflies being able to live as long as seven to eight months.
Fact #4
There are four parts to a butterfly’s lifecycle which consist of the egg, larva (caterpillars), pupa (chrysalis), and adult (butterfly!). butterflies attach their eggs to leaves with a special glue.
I got these fun facts by doing a google search of butterfly facts. I apologize in advance due to not writing down the websites that each fact exactly came from, but for the most part all the sites I looked at pretty much said the same thing. If you’re interested in researching butterflies further, you can check out the websites I looked at for these fun facts, or google search and dive a little deeper!
Google Search: Butterfly Facts
Websites (link provided, copy & paste):
- Science Kids Fun science & technology for kids!
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals/butterfly.html
- The butterfly site
http://www.thebutterflysite.com/facts.shtml
- EcoWatch
http://www.ecowatch.com/10-super-cool-facts-about-butterflies-1891180962.html
Let me know if you find anything interesting that most may not know about butterflies!
I don’t want to say it was the happiest day of my life, but I did end up having a pretty good day. Which is always a good thing.
So, I guess I have my dad and of course Mariah Carey to thank for introducing me to this very wonderful, beautiful, and mysterious creature we call the butterfly. Without them I probably wouldn’t have the love and admiration for them that I do.
And no matter what anybody says, a moth is not an ugly butterfly.
Butterflies are far too beautiful to ever be ugly.
-Xo
Kimora