Fly Butterfly

Happy Belated Fathers Day to our dearly beloved Daddy. To celebrate Fatherhood, we made him a delicious breakfast of thick cinnamon french toast drizzled with homemade caramel sauce and topped with strawberries, blueberries and freshly whipped cream. And accompanied by crisp bacon, of course. It was divine.

After we attended our church services, we continued to celebrate the day with my parents and my sister over a dinner of French Dip sandwiches on crusty baguettes, Havarti cheese, a seasonal fruit platter, strawberry spinach salad and cheesecake topped with mixed berries. It was comforting to spend this first father's day since Bennett's death talking about the tender things of the heart with those that we love. We laughed, we cried, we joked and we expressed feelings of faith and gratitude. It was as good as it could have been without Bennett here.

After dessert, we gathered a bouquet of flowers from our yard (we inherited a serious rose garden when purchasing the house) and headed up to the cemetery to leave flowers for Bennett and send some butterflies to heaven. For her birthday in May, Gracelyn received a butterfly garden from her paternal grandparents. For the last 3 weeks, she has been watching the caterpillars grow, form chrysalises, and grow into beautiful butterflies. When we discussed what we wanted to do with them when they were ready to be set free, Gracelyn decided she wanted to let them go at Bennett's grave. It felt perfect. Bennett would have liked that.

In the process of the butterflies growth process, we lost a few. I thought it might be devastating to my girls (who checked on their status multiple times a day) but when they found the deceased creatures, their response was telling. Emma: "Mom, I am glad we had some butterflies die because that means they are with Bennett and that Bennett can have a butterfly garden too!" How precious is that!?!

So last night as we tenderly encouraged the butterflies out of their cage and observed their flight to freedom, I thought of our Little Butterfly. Taken long before his natural and expected Life's length but - nonetheless - celebrated, loved and cherished while he was here. It was a blessing to experience his beautiful spirit here on earth and it was an honor to be able to witness him learn, grow and - indeed - fly.

Fly high, Little Butterfly. Fly high.