Butterfly

A couple years ago I went to Honolulu and found a lovely little Butterfly quilt in one of the vintage shops. The applique butterflies were made with Hawaiian garment scraps and outlined in rickrack.

Butterflies did not have particular significance to me. Even though I used to swim in competition, butterfly was not my best stroke.

Linda's Mom, Darlene, passed away about six years ago. She loved butterflies. One day when we were at the beach, a yellow butterfly floated by. "Perhaps it was Darlene," I thought. We took one of her rose bushes and replanted it in our garden before the family home was sold. It bloomed yellow. The butterflies love it.

Linda and I enjoy playing pinball together, and one of our favorite "older" machines is Butterfly, made by Sonic in 1977. It was one of two machines we rented last Christmas from Chris Rhodes of Wedgehead PDX. The other was Funhouse.

We had a family pinball tournament with 15 of us playing on Christmas. Linda won the tournament, beating her oldest brother Mike for the title...and she won playing Butterfly.

Last night our team, "Away Team Is Lit" from High Score Arcade played against Blackbird Pizza. They beat us in a tiebreaker last year. This time, we had Linda on the team and we had Butterfly-- the same machine that used to be at Wedgehead and spent a few days in our house. We love the way it sounds.

Linda and I won our match in the first round, I won my singles match, and at the end of the evening, our team had won. We had butterflies, but managed to keep our cool.

Linda's Mom, Darlene, made a needlepoint and crewel work butterfly many years ago. We found it when Linda and her family were cleaning out the house. I had it reframed. Recently, my Mom made another butterfly as a wedding gift. The two butterflies will hang together.

Butterflies are on my mind today. Isn't it amazing how a small but magnificent creature can lead to such a stream of consciousness?