HAPPY HOOSIER AUTUMN TODAY!

What follows is Dr. Helen Steussey's account of an experience with her son. The Henry County Healthy Communities Commitee is inspired almost daily with her emails.

"TJ and I rushed to the school and picked up the glass cage. There was the butterfly, black and orange huddled in the corner. The flowers stood ignored.

We drove the brief mile to our land planted many years ago with a prairie-like mixture of tall grasses and wildflowers. As we pulled up between the towering grasses we were met with a wonderful sight! Flocking to the bright yellow goldenrods were dozens of monarch butterflies – hovering, dancing, fluttering were all of these beautiful black and orange wings so like the still wings of the butterfly sitting in our cage.

Gently we lifted the lid off of the cage and set it carefully in the grass along the drive. We waited. The butterfly lay in his corner unaware of his compatriots feasting above his head. Couldn’t he see? Or smell? How do butterflies sense the flowers they need to sustain their life? We waited a good five minutes.

Finally I nudged him with a flower. Suddenly he awoke and took to the air. Strong wings carried him aloft – above the other butterflies – up as high as the trees he flew. He soared over the green, gold and yellow prairie reaching up to the blue of the sky. Finally he settled up on top of a willow tree to survey the choices of nectar below.

We lost sight of him as he and his brothers sampled the flowers and took off on their long flight south to Mexico many, many miles away.

TJ and I were so pleased as we left the land knowing out butterfly was fine and had company for his journey. But as we drove down the road TJ sighed and said, “It’s a good thing we had the land for those butterflies.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Where could they eat here?” He nodded at the broad expanses of flat grass on either side of us. Hardly a flower, only a few trees in that sea of flat grass and roads and houses. Hardly a spot of habitat or sustenance for a delicate creature with a long way to go.

TJ is afraid the monarchs could become extinct. We could lose these wondrous creatures if they can’t find shelter and food to carry them on one of the greatest migrations on our planet. Our only hope is that more people plant flowers and habitat for these regal kings of the sky – the monarch butterflies."