New Life

New life emerges when it is good and ready.  It is true of people, animals, birds, and even in my garden.  Plants that are supposed to bloom early spring, late summer…. don’t always show up when we expect them to.  There are many factors – the weather that year, where they are planted, where we live – late spring where I live may be later than where you live….

And of course, babies don’t always come when we are planning for them to.  Sometimes they arrive too early, and thank God we have doctors who can help them with their early start, but for the most part they come when they want to.  Our zoo currently has a baby gorilla and a baby porcupine, otherwise known as a porcupette (Porcupette is my new favourite word.  It’s adorable and fun to say!). I went to the zoo a few weeks ago hoping to see the baby gorilla and porcupette.  I went directly there as soon as I arrived.  I didn’t get to see either of them on my first try.  The porcupette should have been out since its parents were out, but it must have been hiding.  Darn!  And the baby gorilla and her mom weren’t out either.  They are both inside and it was cold that day, so I was planning to see them and go home – the beauty of an annual pass is that you don’t feel like you have to see everything all in one day – but since I hadn’t been able to see them, I thought I would head to the butterfly house for a little bit of summer on a cold and dreary day and then come back to try again.

                                                                            

I love the butterfly house.  It is warm and bright, with a pond and fountain in the middle of the room.  The pond has lovely water plants, there are beautiful plants all around the building, and butterflies flying all around you is magical.  They also emerge when they are ready, and of course sometimes start out a little drab, but emerge as these beautiful, amazing creatures.

New life, emerging when it is ready.

So, I spent some time in the butterfly house, wandering around, and then essentially stalking one particular butterfly from a distance.  It was beautiful.  Big, and I think sort of brown on the outside of its wings but the inside!  As it flew, all you could see was a beautiful bright blue floating through the air. It was incredible.  I followed it for a while, hoping it would land just long enough for a picture.  It would land every so often for about half a second, then start flying again. But even if I couldn’t take a picture, just watching it was wonderful.

The weather wasn’t so bad because I had dressed for it, so I decided to go see some of the other animals.  I have been there many times, so I know where most of the animals are, but because I had been so focused on the gorillas and porcupines I wasn’t thinking about any of the others.  As I wandered through the zoo heading for the tigers, I would see something else and say “Oh, yeah, the snow leopards!” “Oh yeah, the red pandas!” It was kind of like being there for the first time again, which was great fun.

Then I headed back.  The gorillas and porcupines are both at the beginning – or the end, depending which direction you are going – of the zoo, so I could go see them again on my way out.  My first thought was to go see the gorillas because I thought there would be more people there to see the baby so sooner would be better, but I consciously thought who should I go see first? Gorillas, or porcupines?  Porcupines.  Something was telling me porcupines. So, I listened to that voice for a change, and went to see the porcupines.

I went off to the building on my left to see the porcupines. I went over to their enclosure and once again saw Mom and Dad.  And then I saw it.  The porcupette!  There it was!  It may be the cutest thing I have ever seen.  I was so excited!  I was trying to contain my excitement.  It wouldn’t really be okay to be jumping up and down – even a little bit – especially since I was by myself.  Kids?  Sure.  They can do it and it’s not weird.  But when adults start doing it, somehow it’s not appropriate.  A double standard, if you ask me.  So instead of obviously jumping up and down, I was making excited faces and clapping my hands silently but excitedly right in front of the porcupines.  They would be the only ones who could see me, and they were preoccupied anyway.  Preoccupied porcupines.  Try saying that five times fast!

Anyway, there it was.  Scurrying around, chasing right behind the adults, not wanting to be on its own.  I stood and watched for a long time.  SO cute!!!

New life, emerging when it was ready.

Then I headed back to the gorilla building.  It is right across from where the porcupines are, so it was easy.  I went in, looked around, and watched some of the gorillas, but the mom and baby were nowhere to be seen.  They can come and go in the back or in the viewing area as they wish, so they probably weren’t far away, just not where we could see them.

New life, emerging when mom is ready.  Which wasn’t right then.  That’s okay.  Next time.

In my garden, there are many plants who have woken up.  They have emerged with new growth, some have new buds, and some are already in bloom.  It’s fun to watch them coming out through the spring and summer and into the fall.  I’m always sad when they stop blooming, but through the spring and summer there is always someone blooming, so while I’m a little sad, it’s okay.  It’s time for them to rest while other friends come to say hello.

The other day I noticed this shooting star in bloom.  It hasn’t bloomed for years and is in a spot where I almost missed it.  What a treat!  It disappears into the ground when it is finished, so it is always a surprise when it comes up. And after so many years, and thinking it was gone forever, it was an even bigger treat.

New life, emerging when it is ready, and resting when it is time.