Enjoy nature’s free shows

The story is told of a family who stopped to ask directions to Niagara Falls from a man who lived near the falls.
“Are they as spectacular as everyone says?” the visitors asked.
The man scratched his head, “I don’t know. I’ve never been there.”
That man does not live at my house.
Several years ago we were traveling by train to a funeral. We had a layover in downtown Chicago. Once my husband realized our son had never been to the top of the Sears tower. I knew what they would do during the layover.
I stayed with the luggage and read a book while my husband and son walked down the street, rode the elevator to the top of one of the tallest buildings in the world and viewed the minuscule world stretched out beneath them.
This past summer, my son’s wife and children joined us at the last minute for a trip to New York. I insisted we go out of our way and take her to Niagara Falls. I knew that unless he heard the roar of the water rolling to the edge of the falls and felt the exploding mist she could not fathom the power, beauty or immensity of Niagara.
We left for a recent visit to St. Louis intending to take an excursion to the Arch. The only reason we didn’t go was that everyone insisted they had already been there and done that. Instead we went to a park with modern sculptures hidden along trails in the surround forest.
In my 47 years of traversing the continental U.S. I have seen many natural and manmade sights. My favorite came as a result of taking an introductory zoology class under Dr. Robison at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.
Robison told the class that Arkansas was in path for the Monarch butterflies migration to Mexico. He described a field trip to Rich Mountain in Mena the last geographical rise in the land before the butterflies hit the flats of Texas.
“They are so tired by the time they reach Mena,” he said “that they landed on me and stayed. They look like they are panting they were so tired.”
I rushed home to tell my then grade school-aged children that we could actually see the migration of the Monarchs.
After school, from September through the first part of October we saw butterflies. As we searched the autumnal blue sky one sky bound black speck after another slowly become a Monarch butterfly drifting over our house to rest on one of the tall pine trees on the lot next door.
Most of us watched a while before heading to do homework, housework or help with supper.
The nature lover, however, grabbed a notebook propped the ladder against our one story ranch house and climbed up on the roof to record the time and number of butterflies he saw flying over.
For the next couple of weeks, he spent his afternoon on the roof of our ranch house counting butterflies. I think his highest daily count in a 90 minute period was 40 southwest bound Monarchs.
I can’t take ya’ll to see all the natural and manmade sighs across the continental U.S. However, I invite you to join me outside to watch the sky. You might see Monarch butterflies floating down to a rest on a nearby tree or bush. You won’t even have to travel as far as the man who lived near Niagara Falls but had never been to the falls.
It doesn’t cost anything except time to catch a glimpse of one of the natural wonders of the world: The migration of the monarch butterflies to Mexico.