For those of you who don’t know my mother, I like to call her: “Ms. Pioneer.” She would have preferred to live in the pioneer days instead of today.

When I was still living at home, our water heater went out. Before it was repaired, my mother ran water in the tub and then marched into the kitchen. “I’m going to take a bath like the pioneers did.” She politely ran water in a large bowl and stuck it in the microwave. “I’m gonna pour hot water in the tub.”

To which I replied, “Yeah mom, pioneers always warmed their bath water in the microwave.” While we both laughed at my remark, I do think it took the fun out of it for her.

One time she had the brilliant idea to take a family trip to Fort Boonesborough, KY. It was a recreation of a village that Daniel Boone helped to build and lived in with his family.

People who worked in it dressed in period costumes. There were movies and demonstrations of life in those days.

Needless to say, my mom was so excited about the trip. Me, not so much. I was a 13 year old kid who didn’t like to sit still. I still don’t. I wasn’t thrilled about the two and a half hour drive. Yes, I was one of those who constantly asked, “Are we there yet?” Finally, my dad told me to watch for the Lexington signs since Boonesborough was close to it. I did. In fact, every time I saw one I would yell out the distance. “150 miles to Lexington.” “100 miles to Lexington.” You get the idea. Finally, my parents asked me to stop.
After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at Fort Boonesborough. To reach it, we had to walk up a path through the forest. As we were walking, a little yellow butterfly kept fluttering around me.

I shooed it away a couple of times, but it kept coming at me. Then it became more aggressive. That little guy was determined to land on me. It continued darting around me and diving toward me. It flew right into my face a few times.

I am going to be honest here, I kinda panicked a little. I had never seen a butterfly do that.

“Go away!” I yelled and, as we say around here, I flung my arms for all I was worth. I wasn’t about to give up and neither was it. To my relief, the crazed little butterfly flew off.

You ought to have seen the stunned look on my parents’ faces. Let’s face it, the only real danger would have been from me accidentally hitting myself.

My parents laughed it off saying they had never seen anything like that. As for me, I was left wondering why me? Why did it go after me like that?

To this day, I haven’t found a reason for my butterfly assault. The only thing different about me at that time was my hair. A week earlier my mom had given me a home perm. I would think that smell would have repelled the little guy. Maybe the smell disturbed it and it was trying to chase me away.

Only God knows the answer to that one.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17 (KJV)

Looking back, I see my little butterfly adventure as a gift from God. Not only does it make me feel special, but it has also given me a great story to share with others. In fact, I think we should all look for the little gifts from God every day. And they can come to us in surprising forms.

You know, maybe I should do some research to see if a crazed butterfly ever attacked Daniel Boone or any other pioneer. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. Also, she is a member of Toastmasters and will be attending storytelling camp again for the 4th summer. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. And she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.