A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting in the Cliff House Conference
Room of the Sun Labs building in Menlo Park, CA. Some minutes
into the meeting, I noticed a red power cord hanging in a corner.
As the discussion continued, I idly saw that there was something large and
brown on the cord, about seven feet off the floor. I stared
at it and as I was saying “What’s that?”, a large and lovely
brown and black and white butterfly opened its wings. It had just
emerged from its chrysalis, which was attached to the red cord.
Apparently, when it was a caterpillar, it had come into the
building, crept into the conference room, and decided that the
plastic power cord was its perfect spot.
The meeting was very quiet and slightly shocked as we watched the unexpected
and beautiful new creature gently flapping its wings for the first time.
The butterfly then took off and flew into the overhead light fixture. It did
not come out again but since the butterfly was not
in the lamp later (I climbed up on the table to look), I hope that it
found its way outside. The dry chrysalis is still in the conference room…
Image Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson
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