Once upon a time I managed a community garden in my home town. My main job was to just chat with and babysit the guy who was severely mentally challenged. He loved the butterflies, had nothing but milkweed in his plot for the butterflies, and would sometimes go into other members gardens to gather chrysalises to protect even more future butterflies.

He was problematic for his lack of understanding about boundaries, and sometimes would have full meltdowns because he was afraid the butterflies would go extinct. He was a handful but a sweet hearted harmless man.

I believe we owe something to each other, and especially to those that God "touches in the head". I saw this as one of the more important parts of my responsibilities to that community garden.

The board was filled with hateful women who would often be blaming others for shitting in their garden. (Yes I had to referee these ridiculous people, it was clearly cat shit, there were many feral cats, yet I couldn't convince them it wasn't malicious people 🙄).

They voted to ban the butterfly man from the garden over my very strong objections. I turned in my resignation after that and moved abroad to do some soul searching. I still think of him often and I hope he found comfort elsewhere after that happened. When I last saw him he was inconsolable.

Plant the milkweed everywhere. Let our communities children and their children enjoy the butterflies and lightning bugs and every other beautiful ephemeral thing that makes this life worth while. Cherish and protect that magic 🥰