This isn't my picture....but this morning I looked out and saw a butterfly enjoying breakfast at my hummingbird feeder. I'm glad it got some use - this year I only saw a hummingbird out there once.
But I was thinking - we're into September now and so this butterfly doesn't have long left to live.
Which led me to wonder - do butterflies have any sense of time, and if so, how does it work for them? When you only live for a few months, does every day stretch out like years would for us?
And at the opposite end of the spectrum giant tortoises can live for two hundred years or more (though Lonesome George was only estimated to be a hundred when he passed on earlier this year). So I wonder, how does time work for them? Lonesome George got his name not only because he was the only one of his species, but because he mated so rarely......and maybe if we knew we'd still be "active" fifty years from now -we might be choosier about our own partners ;).
I remember my grandmother once commenting about how all of her friends had died and she was the only one left. I know it troubled her at times, but she still kept on keeping on until her 90s.
And now, sometimes I look at my life and worry that I only have "a few" good years left.....and regret that I didn't use those earlier ones as well as I should have. But then again, I think about events in my past and am amazed that they happened so long ago.
I hope that butterfly is able to just exist in the moment......and that's something I need to work harder at myself.
I've sometimes had similar thoughts, myself, usually when moving a spider from the kitchen sink to a spot in my herb garden outside. I've not yet hit on an answer, since we really can't *know* about other creatures' perceptions... So much of our own perceptions seem to rely on where/when we are, relative to other people and life events -- our parents or children, graduating from high school or university, getting married or divorced, falling in love or choosing to have an affair -- I think it is very difficult to think of ourselves without some reference to those kinds of people and experiences. And yet... the better able we are to do so, the easier it is to live in the moment.
ReplyDeleteHmmm - I never really considered that others might influence my perceptions of time - a concept I need to ponder for a bit - thank you.
ReplyDeleteI know that I tend to measure time by life events rather than calendar days.....and it is odd how some events seem so distant and others so recent - yet in chronological terms, they occurred quite close together. I think they are based on whether or not I can easily relate to them from who I am now.....some memories seem to have happened to someone else entirely.
As for spiders and other similar creatures - if they invade my personal space and do not respond to gentle encouragement to leave - then I figure they've chosen their fate and I quickly help them leave this existence.