A friend was telling me that when she was at the river cooling off, she saw a lot of swallowtail butterflies. Butterflies are wonderful creatures, and when they are flitting around you get a joyful feeling knowing that it’s summer in the Adirondacks. The next day, I was at 4th Lake and didn’t just see a lot of swallowtails, I saw a ton of swallow tails! They were all over, swooping and darting in the air, of course, doing butterfly happy dances, coming in and out of my vision like they were in the physical world and then in another realm. Then a strange gathering caught my attention. There was a large congregation of butterflies on the sand in one spot. When you see that, you have a lot of questions: what in the world are they doing all close together? were they mating? having a war? killing each other? eating a dead thing? I inched closer and closer and saw that they weren’t doing any of those things, they were in this one wet space in the sand flapping their wings, in joy. They were gathering something from the sand, what it was I don’t know. It was a gracious congregation, some were coming and some were going, floating on the breeze, sinking to the ground, wings in distinct harmony. It didn’t look like they were shutting anyone out - but maybe that’s just putting a human spin on their behavior. What was going on?
Curiosity is a good thing, so I had to consult my researcher (my son) and he told me that they were mud puddling. Insects do that, he noted. They find a wet place, or a dead thing, and just all gather and partake. Mud puddling! The wallowing swallowtails were probably taking some kind of nutrient from the damp sand. There was some element in the sand that was so important to them that they all gathered together and shared the feast.
There are a lot of varieties of swallowtails all over the world. They seem to be pretty common and not endangered. If you look up what they eat, you’ll see that their larvae eat a variety of vegetation, not like the monarch who only uses the milkweed to feed their larvae. The diversity of the swallowtail diet helps them thrive.
Of course, this being June and Pride Month, the swallowtails helped me to think about the diversity of people. We are all so different in our tastes and gifts, our desires and our affections. We all need different things to thrive. Some of us thrive in the city, some in the forest, some at the beach. As we quote in the ordination service:
4 Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, 5 and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (I Cor 12:4-7)
Isn’t that fascinating, that while we are all these spiritual beings inspired (breathed into being) by the One Spirit, there is so much diversity in us. Not one of us is a clone or copy of another. We need all this diversity to thrive and grow. It is hard to believe that we continue to mistrust and misuse people who are not like us. We continue to judge and be judged by the other. Who is the other if not a reflection of ourselves?
Where to do we drink in the nutrient, the element, that will help us see clearly the oneness of all creation? How can we be open to more diversity? Pride Month invites us to observe a new way of seeing. Mud puddling swallowtails are lovely teachers.