The Blue Butterfly

'The only way to catch a miracle is believe in it."

Do you have a friend who when they say, hey you gotta see this film, you know you will like it? Earlier this week, a friend like that sent an email to tell me about The Blue Butterfly.

The movie is inspired by a true event-- the search for the Blue Morpho by a boy dying of cancer. In the movie, a boy and his mother ask a famous entomologist, played by William Hurt, to help him as a last wish. The story mostly takes place in the Costa Rican rain forest as three people are changed through the boy's quest. It is mystical, beautiful, thought provoking, and heartwarming. The forest, wildlife, bugs, actors, mysticism are all characters as the story unfolds to an uplifting conclusion.

I am not much of a bug expert. My usual comments when I see a butterfly run about like this-- pretty gold butterfly, oh there's a red one... Butterflies though are inspirational to me and I appreciate their beauty wherever I see them. They are very symbolic.

One year, when I was much much younger, we were camping in the Cascade Mountains with our families. Our daughter was a year old and stayed with her grandma in camp, while the rest of us hiked into a more remote mountain stream with a waterfall. As we walked down the stream, we came into an opening in the forest with a beautiful pool and small falls where there were hundreds if not thousands of Monarchs. They had gathered for some purpose known only to maybe an entomologist and themselves.

The very nature of a butterfly is a bit mystical to me. They develop from tiny eggs, to caterpillars, to a chrysalis and then emerge a beautiful butterfly. They know what they must consume to survive. Nobody teaches them how to do any of it. They just know.

Then in the case of the Monarch, they migrate great distances to temperate climates for the winter. The ones in Oregon go as far as a valley in Mexico. Not one butterfly will return to where they were originally born. They breed along their way back to their summer homes, but it is their offspring who will return to that home.

How do they know? It's the kind of thing that should encourage us all to follow and develop our own instincts. Seeing a film about butterflies, about throwing yourself into your dream, was a special treat for me. My friend was right.