why weeding the garden is good

I discovered this...

Which turned into this:

And left behind this:

Three weeks of patient waiting this past August paid off in the best way. Didn't get to see the butterfly emerge, but spent three hours protectively watching while it dried its wings and blended into the sidewalk. Prior to this, I only knew the name of one butterfly. Monarch, obviously. But now I know two. This one is the Eastern Comma.

In love with the new Ron Hawkins album. Looking at these pictures again, in the middle of a bracing prairie winter, I keep thinking of a line from one of his songs: mighty as a sparrow, fragile like a whale. Wonder if my fragile, mighty cocoon will still be tucked under its leaf once the snow is gone?