My husband, Scott, and I have had moments in time where our lives were filled with purpose and passion. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know that we are late seniors, Scott in his mid-seventies, and I have kissed the 8th decade of my life.
While we were in Montana, Scott had a doctor that told him he needed to get a purpose and a passion. For a man who had worked long hours and long weeks at his job his entire life with no time for hobbies or home projects, being told he needed a purpose and a passion made little sense. Due to our life situation, the last couple years have been void of much purpose and there has been little to be passionate in what we did each day. We didn’t like our situation, so we made changes. We eventually moved back to Florida!
For a while, when we lived in Hudson, Wisconsin, we both volunteered at the Food Bank. That became a joyful endeavor for both of us. Originally, we packed plastic grocery bags with food items for a community in northern Wisconsin that was plagued with unemployment and poverty. Once a week, we packed somewhere around thirty bags to start with. Eventually that grew into somewhere around 70 boxes. We were given basic food staples, canned goods, breakfast items, along with items for children’s lunch boxes and nutritious treats. We took pride in our packing ensuring consistency and a balance assortment of items that went into each box knowing that we were providing food for families and individual that were at risk of having enough to eat.
We also helped with the occasional on-location food trucks that went to the outlying communities. The truck would park, generally on a Saturday, in a large parking lot such as at a church, grocery store, or warehouse area. We had individuals that would manage the traffic line checking off individuals that had signed up for food that day. The food from the truck was set out on tables where the volunteers would place that table’s items in the vehicles as they drove through the line. The people that came were mostly seniors and of course families. We dispersed fresh fruit and vegetables, frozen meats, canned goods, cereals, and a variety of other items. All the people that came through were so grateful. We enjoyed this opportunity to give of our time. This definitely gave us a purpose and it became a passion.
The last real purpose and passion that we shared was in Clearwater, Florida, with our Monarch butterfly project. The first time was back in 2019 to the spring of 2021. We provided assisted living for over 80 healthy Monarch butterflies.
We are back at it. We are back in Clearwater, Florida, in the same mobile home community. The butterfly house is up and filled with many milkweed plants. Our flower garden, in which the butterfly house sits, is filled with lantana, zinnias, and other nectar plants to feed the newly emerged butterflies. We have released over 80 healthy Monarchs in the past couple months. We have the wooden house outside and a mesh house in the lanai. Things have slowed way down right now, it is mid-May. Most of the butterflies have flown up to the middle section of the country to once again lay eggs to complete the life cycle for those butterflies.
There will be a few Monarchs that will stay in Florida and not migrate north. We have milkweed that are growing back from their deforestation by hungry caterpillars. There are some local Monarchs that will stay and lay eggs on those milkweed plants. We will continue to have a few caterpillars and chrysalises. We will have to wait until next March for the big migration again.
The Monarchs have definitely given us a purpose and a passion.
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