Tropical Buckeye butterflyA year ago, today, I was hit by a speeding skateboarder. The concussion that followed resulted in a subdural hematoma and surgery October 1, 2015. I’m alive, I’m well, I’m different and I am the same. I have cocooned and reformed. Quiet, patient, enduring, curious, relieved and grateful. Ten days ago, I was plucking fuzzy black caterpillars off of my snapdragons. Rather than crush them I decided to cut lots of snapdragon branches and put all of it in a jar with holes in the top. As they ran out of leaves the caterpillars hung from branches and became cocoons. Ten days later day after day one butterfly of the twelve would emerge. Thanks to my neighbor Matthew who was taking care of them, each was released into his yard.
Yesterday the last butterfly emerged from its cocoon and crawled onto my finger and took in the world for the first time. I imagined it simply observing the world, not celebrating but frank in its being here now. Curious to move, to smell, to fly, soon to sip from a flower nearby.
Everyone asks often (thank you for your love and attention) how I am doing. It is indeed miraculous that I am so well in just a year. I am “fully recovered” but I am transformed and my wings are getting stronger and I am ready to fly.