Hi Ralph

Your post struck a chord with me straight away, as I had a similar experience. I was walking by the lakeshore with a friend, I saw a butterfly struggling in the water, It was far from reach but I managed to ease it out with a long stick. Moments later a butterfly hovered right in front of my face for a while then fluttered off, both my friend and I believed that it was the same butterfly that came to thank me, which made me smile.


I often save beetles and other insects that land in the animals water troughs, and I always sense that they are so grateful.

It would be intriguing to know more about insects in other realms.

Just and insect update...

I went outside and talked nicely to the squash bugs, this was nearly a week ago. Unfortunately I haven't seen much of my garden as it's just too hot for me outside (I'm originally from England and I have been in the US a year, the Mississippi heat doesn't agree with me!), so it's left up to my husband to collect the veg and deal with the bugs until it cools down a little, so for the time being the squash bugs have been following their name sakes!

I suppose I’ll share the squash with the bugs for now (well the bugs that get away from my husband that is!) 

VS

This is only sort of on topic but I wanted to share the sad experience...

I try to hold all life as sacred, including parasites like tape worms.

(Note that if I or a pet had tapeworms I would of course kill them dead regardless of my personal feelings.)

However, the story I wanted to share is that I was opening my book to read some and a tiny little ant had wandered in between the pages because of the book mark. I did not want to accidentally squish the ant between the pages so I decided to give him a little flick with my finger to get him out of harms way.

Unfortunately, this tiny microscopic ant was actually not as strong as I thought and instead of flicking him away he was obliterated completely.

I can't help but think of myself as an all powerful hand of God that attempted to reach in and help but instead I was too powerful and so I destroyed instead of letting things run they're natural course.

Hi Jehovah

I have done the very same thing, I have felt the guilt and the power over those tiny living creatures. I often apologize too when squashing the bugs, this makes me wonder what happens to them after that. Although sometimes fear takes over (e.g. mosquitoes/wasps) but even then I feel guilt. It would be nice to know they went some place glorious after I had put them to there death, don't you think?!