Metamorphosis
Written by John MacphersonIt’s been a terrible week of news from Egypt, and other places. Sad and depressing.
So to start the weekend here’s something different, and hopeful for the future.
I looked into the room where my son William (4) was watching the newly emerged butterflies in his butterfly farm.
He was staring intently and gently blowing at one of the delicately-winged creatures, which was clinging to the mesh walls. It, in turn, was fluttering its wings softly in the boybreeze.
William and the butterfly © John MacPherson
“What are you doing William?” I asked.
“It’s just a new one daddy so I’m teaching it how to fly!” he said with a note of serious concern in his voice.
Two days later we released them, into the warm sunshine. William was thrilled to see that his lessons had been heeded. “They can fly daddy! They can fly! I did it!”
He was right, and so we talked about how they were going off to enjoy their lives, what they would do, and how finally they would create more butterflies, which would benefit lots of people, and this was all thanks to him carefully looking after them in his small farm. He smiled with satisfaction, the glorious world-encompassing satisfaction of a small child.
I wonder if I blow on William will I be as successful? I guess I’ll find out some years from now when I let him go.
We all change. Eventually. And some of us fly.
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.