140:365 butterfly in the sky

140:365 butterfly in the sky
yesterday i went to a wedding. my date told me the night before that it was going to be elaborate. then he said "there's going to be a butterfly release at the end of the ceremony." i thought he was just being sarcastic, because surely that would be a difficult task. when we got to the wedding and i  glanced at the program, the words "butterfly release" instantly jumped off the page and i was sort of amazed. i've never really heard of a butterfly release. is rice throwing a thing of the past? anyway, the program said that they were going to be in envelopes that each person would hold and open when the bride and groom walked through the church doors. 




this was my envelope. i was pretty positive that most of the butterflies were likely dead already, having been placed into envelopes and stacked on top of each other in a pile for at least a few hours. as i held mine for what seemed to be 10ish minutes, i not once saw or felt movement. i was certain that i was going to be witness to a giant Monarch butterfly massacre. but to my surprise, when i opened the envelope it awoken and flew off!!....however it did take a minute for it to figure out it was still alive and get some oxygen back in it's lungs before take off.