Dear friends,
Has your group checked out Julia Butterfly? I feel the environmental
movement needs a spiritual awakening, and that's where butterflies come in.
In peace,
Butterfly Spirit (Alan Moore)
Two Butterflies Meet in Redwood Forest
The story of Julia Butterfly will be included in a forthcoming book by Alan
Moore and Norie Huddle about people whose lives have been changed by
butterflies. The book will tell the stories of twelve people from around the
world whose "butterfly experiences" have reconnected them with Nature and
given their lives new meaning. Moore and Blue Dolphin Publishing are
currently discussing a contract for an anthology of short butterfly stories
that he has collected.
All these people are now working for the Earth and for world peace. The
rights to one of the stories, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-
Dominique Bauby, has been bought by Stephen Speilberg. Moore has spoken to
Spielberg's executive secretary and was told to get an agent to submit his
story idea. He is now looking for both an agent and someone to write the
screenplay.
Julia spoke at a butterfly release in her honor during the Berkeley Earth
Day Festival on April 25th at 12 PM in Martin Luther King Jr. Park. More than
2000 school children in the East Bay were raising butterflies for Earth Day
releases.
When she was only seven years old, Julia had a butterfly experience. It
happened while she was hiking with her family on the Blue Mountain stretch of
the Appalachian Trail, just outside Allentown PA. She said she will never
forget it. On that day in 1983, a butterfly landed on her hand and stayed with
her for most of the day, marking a turning point and transformation in her
life. She said that experience was a gift--a gift which eventually led her on
a spiritual quest that unfolded into her record breaking tree-sit in Humboldt
County to defend Mother Earth and the great Redwood Forests of the Headwaters.
During her tree-sit, Julia became known as "Julia Butterfly".
Julia's butterfly experience was in the same general area where in 1997
Alan Moore, founder of the Butterfly Gardeners Association, called a butterfly
to his finger while hiking with a Lakota friend. After watching a swallowtail
swoop past them several times as they hiked along the same section of
Appalachian Trail that Julia had traversed, Alan said to his
friend, "Watch this!" He pointed his finger at and focused his attention upon
the butterfly as it approached for the third and final time. The butterfly
landed right on his finger tip, giving him an experience of goose bumps that
he will never forget!
As fate would have it, Julia and Alan met on March 14, 1998 by an ancient
redwood named Luna on a 1,700 foot ridge overlooking the Eel River in Humboldt
County. As winds picked up and clouds rolled in obscuring her tree-top perch,
Julia descended some 150 feet so she could be seen and heard. Besides telling
the group about her Allentown experience, she told Alan how "through lifes
trials & hardships we arise beautiful and free." After a long exchange of
stories, some about butterflies, Julia agreed to add her story to the book
which they plan to dedicate to planetary stewardship. The tree was named
"Luna" because Earth First volunteers set up the tree-sit on the night of a
full moon.
Is it any wonder the celebration and rally marking Butterfly's hundredth
day in that tree named "Luna" occurred on the Spring Equinox? Is it any wonder
that a shirt the Butterfly Gardeners had been selling for four years, entitled
"American Butterflies", would depict both a Julia Butterfly and a Luna Moth on
it? This kind of serendipity happens constantly in our work befriending Wild
Nature!
