I always wandered off with my sister when we were little. We walked everywhere, the playground, or park, through the neighborhood and down the street. Every day was a new adventure, and we were always excited to go and explore through nature. One day we decided to walk to the nature reserve that was near our house. We had always seen beautiful butterflies floating around everywhere in there, so we grabbed our "butterfly net" and set off to go there. We got there, and stopped for a second to look around. It had long tall grass that went up to our thighs and the trees formed a tunnel where you could enter. They were so tall and large, and loomed over us with their ginormous shadows. Birds sang their songs high up on the branches, and there were spots of sunlight gleaming through the trees. It was like another world to our elementary level minds. When we got there, automatically I caught a glimpse of what looked like a big, orange butterfly. "Look Kayla!!" I yelled to my sister as I ran towards it with my net. I got close enough to it and swung the net up in the air, and missed. It felt like the butterfly was mocking me, it stayed just above me where I could almost get it, but not quite. It left, and I followed it below. It went through the nature reserve with my sister and I following close behind, and then it sat on a plant. Just as I was about to swing the net again, my sister grabbed my arm gently and said, "Wait, Ally. Don't touch her." I listened to her, because she was known as the "nature girl" in my family. Back then, I believed she knew everything about every animal, insect, plant. At least that’s what she made me think. We waited for a minute or so, then the butterfly left us. "I learned about this before," Kayla started, "Butterflies leave their babies on plants!!" She said excitedly. We ran over and lifted up each leaf. Sure enough, there was an egg on the plant. We checked the rest of it, and I spotted a tiny, caterpillar clinging to the leaf. It's body was barely visible, and the biggest thing you could see was its black head and little antennas. Obviously, the caterpillar was there before the butterfly came. My sister pulled out her DS and took a picture of the baby. We left it alone and walked home to tell our mom what we found. When we got home, Kayla showed my mom the picture and my mom agreed it was adorable. She decided to look up the caterpillar by its color to see what it was. "It's called a monarch butterfly" she said. We read about it and what plant it eats, and how long it takes for it to transform to a butterfly. She told us there was many things that could stop them from becoming a butterfly. Birds and spiders eating them, the plant getting mowed down, and other things. Then she questioned us, "Should we try to take care of those two?" Referring to the plant we found. We agreed enthusiastically, and all three of us walked back down with scissors in hand. 

We cut the plant, and stuck it into a bottle of water. We covered the top of the bottle with paper and tape so the babies wouldn't fall into the water. Over time, the caterpillars, turned into "toddlers" as we liked to call them, and we replaced the plant often and watched their life cycle. Eventually, they made cocoons, and stayed that way for about a week and a half. One was more developed than the other.

Finally, the cocoon started to split open, and we watched their wings slowly unfold and open into beautiful, orange wings with black spots. "This one is a girl," Kayla said. "The ones without spots on their wings are girls." We took pictures of it, and held it for a few minutes, then we went out to our garden and set it on a yellow flower. When the wind started going, the butterfly looked ready to start flying. Her wings flapped lightly as she was ready for take off. And then finally, she flew off very majestically. Being pretty little at the time, I felt as happy as a mother seeing their child succeed. It felt amazing that we nourished this butterfly to full adulthood. 

At first, I was ready to catch the butterfly for my own benefit. I'm glad I didn't because I would've been disturbing that butterfly. We started "raising" more and more butterflies and I feel like I really learned to appreciate nature. Even the smallest things deserve life itself. All forms of life deserve to be treated with kindness and gentleness.