Mary!!! This is brilliant and I truly savored every word., both spoken and written. Oh, how Synchronicity leads us down the most creative and rewarding paths. You got the nudge and you followed through and gave us this beautiful piece.
On my last meander over to Gone-Away Pond I noticed that there is healthy-looking Milkweed growing everywhere, and I am ecstatic.! I will never forget the first time I smelled Milkweed blossoms. I was walking through a huge meadow in Upstate NY and there was the most intoxicating scent. And then I saw Monarch butterflies everywhere.
The first thing my mind went to when I started reading this was “Hmm…guess who has Butterfly as an animal spirit/totem/guide???” And so I grabbed my copy of “Animal Speak” by Ted Andrews and read:
“Butterfly: Keynote - Transmutation and the Dance of Joy. Probably no animal or insect has come to represent the process of transformation and shapeshifting more than that of the butterfly. For those with this totem, the process of metamorphosis should be studied closely…”
Uh, you surely didn’t need a book to know this intuitively.
I love this line
“The world, disintegrating
into a hot slop of potential,
wars with itself as it awaits one more
cell to tip the balance toward the new.”
Personally, as crazy as this world is right now, I am excited to be witness to it and to be a part of its metamorphosis. I will think of you and all of the possibilities before us every time I go walking and see Milkweed. Heading out the door right now...🦋🦋 (Why isn't there a Monarch Butterfly emoji??) XOXO
Dear Barbara!! Thank you from every imaginal cell of my being for your enthusiasm and loving support -- including the restack and subscription!! I'm so honored!! You are the queen of following instinct, I'd say; your daily life reflects that in the beautiful way the natural world just falls open to you.
I'm with you -- this time is crazy-exciting for those who choose to view our present turmoil as "the soup." So much love to you, friend... ❤️
A few more gems from Ted Andrews: "There has long been an association in folklore of a relationship between those of the Faerie Realm and butterflies... Butterflies appear to dance as they light upon flowers and such. They remind us not to take things quite so seriously within our lives. They awaken a sense of lightness and joy. They remind us that life is a dance, and dance, though powerful is also a great pleasure...Butterfly medicine reminds us to make changes when the opportunities present themselves. Transformation is inevitable, but butterfly will help teach you that growth and change does not have to be traumatic. It will teach you that it can occur as gently, as sweetly, and as joyfully as we wish."
Here's hoping for Butterfly Medicine for our whole world! XOXO
Magnificent! I could feel this poem in my imaginal cells, Mary. Metamorphosis is messy. I notice that the less I worry about the optics of a world going to hell in a hand basket, the more I can observe things falling apart without dread. Your words inspire curiosity about how it’s all going to turn out while also issuing a reminder to listen to the inner voice that coaxes us into our own next step in the metamorphosis process.
So well said! When we stop labeling the optics, the less dread we experience. I feel like you are a living example of that curiosity -- you are trusting that messy process of transformation ON THE DAILY. Thanks for the kind comment, and for inspiring ME. xox!
What the world needs NOW is another butterfly poem. I concur with Barbara that this is brilliant.
I used to have a milkweed patch that was seed-bombing the neighborhood. At a particularly stressful time, the week of signing the MSA after 30 mos of negotiation, I had 40-50 chrysalis hanging around the yard. Some were on the house, the porch, the fence. I had a couple of head busts made by daughters in pottery class--one chrysalis hung like an earring on Medusa and another from the cap bill of a stuck-up popular guy made to look ridiculous.
All I could do at the time was commune with them and watch them emerge, sticky wet, and dry out their wings, fluttering out the most vibrant color imaginable. So since then, the monarch has been my totem, corny though it is. I'm still planning a tattoo sometime in my future.
Favorite lines: 'out of goo, architecture,' 'terrestrial to celestial,' 'sleeping sub rosa,' 'each one of us a fortune-speller,' 'hot slop of potential,' jewelry box,' 'my heroic twin self,' 'a gyration of spinning discomfort and ugliness,' and more I'd have to quote the whole thing to include. But most of all I loved the meaning you brought out of this time of waiting, womb time. It makes the emergence inevitable, and the conflict--that feels wrong--into a necessary dis-illusion/ dis-solution. We are dissolving and that's okay.
You are so opposite the chrysalis, Mary, so soft and gooey on the outside ;-) that I forget the steely resolve (re-solve!) under the surface. Both you and the butterfly are a metaphor for the feminine re-emerging into the world, and both give me hope.
Bring on the corny! I just love the anecdote of all the chrysalis-es (chrysali??) dripping from every available spot in your yard. Of course the monarch is your totem.
Isn't it funny? I don't think of myself as gooey on the outside and steely inside; I view myself as exactly the opposite! 😂 That's why we need friends; they hold necessary mirrors!
Thanks for this comment, Tereza. You are so YOU, unapologetically, and you give me/everyone permission to be the same. Big hugs... xox
Jun 2·edited Jun 2Liked by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin
Love it
My summer of monarchs I found 50 chrysalises around my property; no idea how many I didn't find. All but 2 turned into butterflies. One magical morning I counted dozens on my joe pye patch.
One very late chrysalis opened in late October. There was nothing left to eat here. Not a scrap. So I called the Boothbay conservation place on the coast; they were still loaded with flowers & invited my down. I captured my butterfly & drove an hour+ southeast. Released on a flowering bush, said a prayer for him/her & spent some time wandering around before heading back home.
Ok. So I read this earlier and I started writing a comment and then the day got away from me and I ended up going through my own mini metamorphosis and now I’m back on the other side breathing a sigh of relief.
The world absolutely needs this butterfly poem. Even if only a handful of us read it. The imaginar cells holding the memories through the goo phase is so wild. Like, what?
There’s this meme that I really like: a caterpillar and a butterfly are sitting across from each other at a cafe. The caterpillar says: “you’ve changed” and the butterfly says: “we’re supposed to.” The only constant thing is change! We should embrace change more often. Your poem inspires that. Thank you, Mary!
Well, when I asked the universe to send me a sign if I'm going in the right direction - specifically, a blue butterfly - I had no inkling that I'd also get a beautiful poem! Synchronicity, indeed.
Ooh, I hadn't considered the metaphorical implications of hungry, ne-er do well robins! I'll have to ponder that..
And thank you for following up on our Bucky convo with these comments! Highly relevant. I'm fascinated by the slip-n-slide that's perched between collectivist utopia and mindless obedience...
inspiration fer the "fortune spellers" in alluvus -- so interestin' ta think of the "battle" of the metamorphosis as a metaphor fer our times--our own inner changes--hopefully to emerge triumphant as the majestic butterfly--I daresay we are still in the chrysalis--hopin' the hungry robin (rob-in) doesn't devour us greedily whist we do our "quick change" in the "wings" (costume mistress heeeellllp!) Loved this: I am rearranging myself. Indeed we do, must, never a neat process (but it seems Mother Nature has always had it down...ain't like it hasn't happened before--civilizations, wars, nation states---only difference I see today is a far greater proliferation of ravenous robbins (mebbe usin' AI to find those of us temporarily vulnerable in rearrangin'--fixed, unable ta inch away nor take flight) may we emerge victorious her Majesty Mother Nature would have it!... and as a last note "write-on!"
ps
A propos of a chat we had waaaay back regardin' the fascinatin' Buckminster Fuller (Bucky Balls aside!) this came up today on Elizabeth Nickson's stack regardin' green architecture an' I believe MAA (below) stated my own observations & reservations quite eloquently today so sharin' (as both a fan of Bucky but NOT of his utopian/global dreams) -- think you'll like readin' it too:
COMMENT 1 from "Roger" : Mister Geodesic-Dome Fuller was ahead of his time. Like many so-called futurists of the 20th century, he clearly predicted the coming dystopia.
COMMENT 2: Margaret Anna Alice
Indeed, Roger. I just finished listening to the audiobook of “Critical Path.” I find many of his observations beautifully inspiring and chillingly accurate. He truly had a heart for humanity while being one of the most original and brilliant thinkers of his time.
At the same time, I find some of his recommendations abhorrent—especially his advocacy for desovereignization and a one-world system, although I believe what he envisioned is very different (apolitical, individual-focused, anti-corporation, anti-government) from what the cruelites are in the process of implementing right now. It seems his utopianism may have clouded his judgment regarding how easily such a system could be co-opted for a totalitarian panopticon.
~~~~
How true that in 2024 hand-in-hand with some application of his "highest" ideals comin' ta fruition we all are sufferin' mightly under the jackboot of the one-world-system purported by the elites as utoipian but gnawin' already at the edges of totalitarianism (eek)
Mary!!! This is brilliant and I truly savored every word., both spoken and written. Oh, how Synchronicity leads us down the most creative and rewarding paths. You got the nudge and you followed through and gave us this beautiful piece.
On my last meander over to Gone-Away Pond I noticed that there is healthy-looking Milkweed growing everywhere, and I am ecstatic.! I will never forget the first time I smelled Milkweed blossoms. I was walking through a huge meadow in Upstate NY and there was the most intoxicating scent. And then I saw Monarch butterflies everywhere.
The first thing my mind went to when I started reading this was “Hmm…guess who has Butterfly as an animal spirit/totem/guide???” And so I grabbed my copy of “Animal Speak” by Ted Andrews and read:
“Butterfly: Keynote - Transmutation and the Dance of Joy. Probably no animal or insect has come to represent the process of transformation and shapeshifting more than that of the butterfly. For those with this totem, the process of metamorphosis should be studied closely…”
Uh, you surely didn’t need a book to know this intuitively.
I love this line
“The world, disintegrating
into a hot slop of potential,
wars with itself as it awaits one more
cell to tip the balance toward the new.”
Personally, as crazy as this world is right now, I am excited to be witness to it and to be a part of its metamorphosis. I will think of you and all of the possibilities before us every time I go walking and see Milkweed. Heading out the door right now...🦋🦋 (Why isn't there a Monarch Butterfly emoji??) XOXO
Dear Barbara!! Thank you from every imaginal cell of my being for your enthusiasm and loving support -- including the restack and subscription!! I'm so honored!! You are the queen of following instinct, I'd say; your daily life reflects that in the beautiful way the natural world just falls open to you.
I'm with you -- this time is crazy-exciting for those who choose to view our present turmoil as "the soup." So much love to you, friend... ❤️
You're so welcome, Mary!
A few more gems from Ted Andrews: "There has long been an association in folklore of a relationship between those of the Faerie Realm and butterflies... Butterflies appear to dance as they light upon flowers and such. They remind us not to take things quite so seriously within our lives. They awaken a sense of lightness and joy. They remind us that life is a dance, and dance, though powerful is also a great pleasure...Butterfly medicine reminds us to make changes when the opportunities present themselves. Transformation is inevitable, but butterfly will help teach you that growth and change does not have to be traumatic. It will teach you that it can occur as gently, as sweetly, and as joyfully as we wish."
Here's hoping for Butterfly Medicine for our whole world! XOXO
Oh, that's just BEAUTIFUL. Love that, Barbara, thank you.
Magnificent! I could feel this poem in my imaginal cells, Mary. Metamorphosis is messy. I notice that the less I worry about the optics of a world going to hell in a hand basket, the more I can observe things falling apart without dread. Your words inspire curiosity about how it’s all going to turn out while also issuing a reminder to listen to the inner voice that coaxes us into our own next step in the metamorphosis process.
So well said! When we stop labeling the optics, the less dread we experience. I feel like you are a living example of that curiosity -- you are trusting that messy process of transformation ON THE DAILY. Thanks for the kind comment, and for inspiring ME. xox!
Woo-Hoo!!, Mary, what a ride!! I totally loved it! Only you could create such a masterpiece.
One can only imagine where we're headed, but that's the idea isn't it? To kick our imaginations into high gear, and "get elevated". Thanks. xox
Thanks, Rocket! Love your enthusiasm -- it's such a boost. Happy to be on the ride with you! xox
Magnificent!
Delicious! I slowly read you aloud.
How true: we are the mysteriously propelled alchemists, re-solving the old, surrendering to... we know not what...
Thank you, Mary 💜🙏😊
I'm so glad this resonated with you. Love that: mysteriously propelled alchemists, re-solving the old." Yes!! Thanks for the comment.
What the world needs NOW is another butterfly poem. I concur with Barbara that this is brilliant.
I used to have a milkweed patch that was seed-bombing the neighborhood. At a particularly stressful time, the week of signing the MSA after 30 mos of negotiation, I had 40-50 chrysalis hanging around the yard. Some were on the house, the porch, the fence. I had a couple of head busts made by daughters in pottery class--one chrysalis hung like an earring on Medusa and another from the cap bill of a stuck-up popular guy made to look ridiculous.
All I could do at the time was commune with them and watch them emerge, sticky wet, and dry out their wings, fluttering out the most vibrant color imaginable. So since then, the monarch has been my totem, corny though it is. I'm still planning a tattoo sometime in my future.
Favorite lines: 'out of goo, architecture,' 'terrestrial to celestial,' 'sleeping sub rosa,' 'each one of us a fortune-speller,' 'hot slop of potential,' jewelry box,' 'my heroic twin self,' 'a gyration of spinning discomfort and ugliness,' and more I'd have to quote the whole thing to include. But most of all I loved the meaning you brought out of this time of waiting, womb time. It makes the emergence inevitable, and the conflict--that feels wrong--into a necessary dis-illusion/ dis-solution. We are dissolving and that's okay.
You are so opposite the chrysalis, Mary, so soft and gooey on the outside ;-) that I forget the steely resolve (re-solve!) under the surface. Both you and the butterfly are a metaphor for the feminine re-emerging into the world, and both give me hope.
Bring on the corny! I just love the anecdote of all the chrysalis-es (chrysali??) dripping from every available spot in your yard. Of course the monarch is your totem.
Isn't it funny? I don't think of myself as gooey on the outside and steely inside; I view myself as exactly the opposite! 😂 That's why we need friends; they hold necessary mirrors!
Thanks for this comment, Tereza. You are so YOU, unapologetically, and you give me/everyone permission to be the same. Big hugs... xox
Love it
My summer of monarchs I found 50 chrysalises around my property; no idea how many I didn't find. All but 2 turned into butterflies. One magical morning I counted dozens on my joe pye patch.
One very late chrysalis opened in late October. There was nothing left to eat here. Not a scrap. So I called the Boothbay conservation place on the coast; they were still loaded with flowers & invited my down. I captured my butterfly & drove an hour+ southeast. Released on a flowering bush, said a prayer for him/her & spent some time wandering around before heading back home.
That's such a kind act! Makes my heart sing...
Thanks for the comment, Mary. ❤️
Ok. So I read this earlier and I started writing a comment and then the day got away from me and I ended up going through my own mini metamorphosis and now I’m back on the other side breathing a sigh of relief.
The world absolutely needs this butterfly poem. Even if only a handful of us read it. The imaginar cells holding the memories through the goo phase is so wild. Like, what?
There’s this meme that I really like: a caterpillar and a butterfly are sitting across from each other at a cafe. The caterpillar says: “you’ve changed” and the butterfly says: “we’re supposed to.” The only constant thing is change! We should embrace change more often. Your poem inspires that. Thank you, Mary!
Thanks, Tonika! And yay for your own mini metamorphosis!
I love the meme/cartoon. 😂That's perfect.
Oh I adored this Mary! My you are GOOD! What a brilliant read.
And Meade's Fate and Destiny - well, I LOVED that book. ( I have a funny synchronistic story about it.)
Thank you for this.
So grateful for the compliment, Kathleen. Means so much coming from you! I would love to hear the story sometime, if/when you feel like sharing...xox
Oh I would be happy to share it sometimes. :-)
Mary’s poetry is like the best kept secret on Substack. It’s so damn good.
Aw...🙂↕️
Isn't that the truth?
I'm still feeling delight by the shape of the butterfly wing embedded in top and bottom stanza's and that's before the words.
"So when the universe
tells you to write a butterfly poem, do it without delay, for
each of us is a fortune-speller, and it’s time now to conjure
impossible wings that have been sleeping sub rosa, a new being
that transcends imagination: the butterfly that comes only when called."
🦋🦋 🦋 Just love this - dense and light at once. Masterful.
I'm so touched! 🙏🏼
And happy that the wing-shapes registered... On a phone, they're lost.
Well, when I asked the universe to send me a sign if I'm going in the right direction - specifically, a blue butterfly - I had no inkling that I'd also get a beautiful poem! Synchronicity, indeed.
You asked for a blue butterfly?? Wow. I need to up my game when I ask for signs...😂
Glad to have played some small part in the plan!
Act III—I love it. Resistance is what we all want to avoid. Meeting it head-on is where growth and learning always happen, but it is often missed.
What a fabulous creation. And what a treat to read this piece this week.
Thank you so much, Jack! Sounds like it may have come at the right time... 😊
Your work always hits my eyes at the right moment…
Ooh, I hadn't considered the metaphorical implications of hungry, ne-er do well robins! I'll have to ponder that..
And thank you for following up on our Bucky convo with these comments! Highly relevant. I'm fascinated by the slip-n-slide that's perched between collectivist utopia and mindless obedience...
inspiration fer the "fortune spellers" in alluvus -- so interestin' ta think of the "battle" of the metamorphosis as a metaphor fer our times--our own inner changes--hopefully to emerge triumphant as the majestic butterfly--I daresay we are still in the chrysalis--hopin' the hungry robin (rob-in) doesn't devour us greedily whist we do our "quick change" in the "wings" (costume mistress heeeellllp!) Loved this: I am rearranging myself. Indeed we do, must, never a neat process (but it seems Mother Nature has always had it down...ain't like it hasn't happened before--civilizations, wars, nation states---only difference I see today is a far greater proliferation of ravenous robbins (mebbe usin' AI to find those of us temporarily vulnerable in rearrangin'--fixed, unable ta inch away nor take flight) may we emerge victorious her Majesty Mother Nature would have it!... and as a last note "write-on!"
ps
A propos of a chat we had waaaay back regardin' the fascinatin' Buckminster Fuller (Bucky Balls aside!) this came up today on Elizabeth Nickson's stack regardin' green architecture an' I believe MAA (below) stated my own observations & reservations quite eloquently today so sharin' (as both a fan of Bucky but NOT of his utopian/global dreams) -- think you'll like readin' it too:
COMMENT 1 from "Roger" : Mister Geodesic-Dome Fuller was ahead of his time. Like many so-called futurists of the 20th century, he clearly predicted the coming dystopia.
COMMENT 2: Margaret Anna Alice
Indeed, Roger. I just finished listening to the audiobook of “Critical Path.” I find many of his observations beautifully inspiring and chillingly accurate. He truly had a heart for humanity while being one of the most original and brilliant thinkers of his time.
At the same time, I find some of his recommendations abhorrent—especially his advocacy for desovereignization and a one-world system, although I believe what he envisioned is very different (apolitical, individual-focused, anti-corporation, anti-government) from what the cruelites are in the process of implementing right now. It seems his utopianism may have clouded his judgment regarding how easily such a system could be co-opted for a totalitarian panopticon.
~~~~
How true that in 2024 hand-in-hand with some application of his "highest" ideals comin' ta fruition we all are sufferin' mightly under the jackboot of the one-world-system purported by the elites as utoipian but gnawin' already at the edges of totalitarianism (eek)