Monarch Butterflies(Gordon England) On a September Saturday in 1978, Steve Craig and I gathered our books. We left the University of Texas at Austin for serious study at Uncle Tom's ranch. I had an upcoming Professional Engineer's license exam, while Steve had tough pre-dental-school exams the following week.

We arrived that morning and then settled into the farmhouse kitchen for a long day of grueling study in silence. I took a break when my mind turned to mashed potatoes that afternoon.

“Let's go hunt doves,” I suggested.

“Good idea. I'm toasted.”

We changed into camo clothing, armed ourselves, and took a much-needed walk on a crunchy gravel road toward a lake at the bottom of a hill. Halfway to the lake, I glanced at a dead, fifteen-foot-tall tree with bare branches, then paused in amazement to watch an orange and black pelt pulsating along its trunk. White and black blankets hung from its limbs, wavering in a breeze. Orange leaves with thin, black stripes and fluttering wings swarmed around the tree. Only they weren’t leaves. They had to be butterflies.

I pointed. “Look.”

“Those are Monarch butterflies,” Steve said.

“Wow. I watched them on National Geographic as they migrated to Mexico. I didn’t know our ranch was on their path.”

We stared in awe at the extraordinary sight as nature diverted our drained minds away from books and recharged us with soothing, live art. The Monarchs gently landed on each other, increasing the trunk's width with alternating sections of open orange and closed white wings.

After watching for a while, I said, “I don’t feel like shooting birds right now. Let's go back to studying?”

"I agree. I'm relaxed now."

After the butterfly recharge, we studied most of the night and the following day. We stopped by the Monarch tree as we left. To our surprise, the butterflies had left on the next step of their epic, multi-generational journey across the United States to a forest deep in Mexico. I realized that my perceived difficult semester could not compare to Mother Nature’s animal migrations.

A week later, I passed my PE exam, and Steve aced his science classes, enabling him to qualify for Dental School. Looking back at those school days, I appreciated how a few minutes with beautiful butterflies helped us recharge for tests that did not compare to their journeys.

---