Epiphany 3

Wall decoration: fishing rod hung with butterflies.

Epiphany #3

I was a schoolteacher in Scotland for one whole year before I decided to call it quits. Being a sewing teacher in a junior high school in Scotland, was just not the right career for me. I made plans to change my life when I accepted a position as a nanny for an American couple who had a newborn baby. The plan was to meet up with them in Northern Ireland where they were living. We would all apply for South African work visas (to be expedited by the American company he worked for) and then sail to Cape Town where the couple planned to settle down. He already had an engineering job lined up and since his wife was feeling poorly after the birth, I was to take care of the baby on the sea voyage in return for my ticket to South Africa.  I had the naïve idea that a teaching job in South Africa would be a lot better than the one I had in Scotland. It didn’t work out because his visa was denied. He had a criminal record back in New Mexico where he had grown up and so after a few months in Ireland I ended up living in London.

Before travelling to Northern Ireland, a friend and I had made plans to vacation in Greece for two months.

In June of 1966 the two of us quit our teaching jobs, took a train to London, and then boarded the boat train that would take us across the English Channel between Dover and Ostend. As soon as we arrived in Ostend we boarded another train that transported us all the way through Europe from Ostend to Athens, our final destination.

I enjoyed traveling around Greece and can truly describe the next experience as an epiphany. It was on the island of Rhodes and E  had insisted on taking one of those tiresome tourist bus tours around the island. I wasn’t keen to do it but am so glad that I agreed to go. We went to see the valley of the butterflies. http://www.rhodesguide.com/travelguide/rhodes_excursions.php?ssp=1

Epiphanies always happen to me when I’m alone. When the bus reached the valley I wandered off by myself and stood gazing at the thick foliage thinking that the tour although tolerable was relatively dull. The air was very still and the silence was noticeable. Just at that moment, the tour guide who was at a distance from where I was standing clapped his hands (something that is prohibited now), and millions of multi colored butterflies took flight, filling the air like a blanket of color floating over the trees.  It was magnificent and I stood mesmerized feeling totally at one with nature. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen and I wanted it to stay like that forever. Of course the butterflies flew back to the trees, folded their wings and became invisible again. The magic moment was over and we returned to the bus to continue the tour, but I never forgot the butterflies.

Recently a visitor to my house remarked that I must like butterflies a lot. I wasn’t really aware of how many butterflies (not real ones) were decorating my home but here are some photos to show how much I was influenced by the butterflies of Rhodes.

Bedroom wall: butterfly made from bird feathers.

 Butterfly clock.