One Week Out of Time with the Butterfly Man
by Rose Liberte - Part 4/4

"I don't have much time for relationships" Alan warned me. So I accepted the fact. After all he was extremely busy day and night at the computer and on the phone constantly organizing, planning and executing plans for spreading the Butterfly message in greater and greater circles of power throughout the planet.

I realized that Butterflies were becoming more and more important as every moment we focused more and more on the Butterfly ideas and ideals. I made a joke that if a couple meditated on "Peanut Butter, peanut butter," they'd begin to have peanut butter experiences of the universe. We arrived at Osti's houseboat in Sausalito and he offered us Peanut Butter sandwiches with mint jelly. We burst out laughing together, at this first synchronistic event of the "peanut butter" universe. We ate one half a peanut butter sandwich each as a ceremonial gesture at this irony of events!

We were told that butterflies were to be found on Albany Hill. So Alan and I made a pilgrimage and as we wandered down the path into the forest, we beheld more and more butterflies appearing as we neared the farthest groves of trees. Monarchs first one, then two, then more. Painted ladies also appeared and various types of butterflies we couldn't classify. As we approached the groves where the butterflies were flourishing, Alan spied a pair of mating yellow swallowtails and bid them to climb on his hand. They were totally merged, silently crawling as one unit over Alan's hand and onto his shoulder. From there they alighted on his head wiggling their antennae above his ear. Totally conjoined they played in the grasses of his hair, wiggling around his ears in all their majestic beauty. These mating butterflies united as one climbed around on Alan for over a half hour as I absorbed the magic of their conjugal dance.

"In their mating dance they fall to the ground, merged as One."

Alan told me to close my eyes as we sat on the grass with our arms upraised. He barely needed a second to invoke the presence of butterflies. I heard him say, "I give you a minute." In less than 30 seconds, when I opened my eyes, lo and behold, one or two butterflies were wafting through, circling the trees above us in spirals. A unique brownish golden butterfly landed on my wrist and near the palm of my hand. It flew off, circled about, and landed at the same spot on my wrist four or five times. Alan informed me that butterflies seem to like meditators and respond to the sounds of the OM. He also told me he never closed his eyes but was looking up at the sky when he had said, "I give you a minute." When he looked back at me he told me the first butterfly was already pearched on my wrist. He could hardly believe it.

The mystical alighting of the butterfly on my wrist, not once, not twice, but four times in succession was the magical sign confirming the perfect synchronicity and connection with Butterfly Spirit within me, within us all. I craved more of this beauty, peace and perfection that they so perfectly express in nature â " the thoughtform of transformation made tangible and real.

Alan and I spent every waking moment day and night together, wrapped in each other's arms, eating together, sleeping together, playing together, walking together, traveling together. In fact I never wanted to be separated from Him, fascinated by Alan and all he was doing, the many facets of his quick-witted Gemini mind, his humor, his dedication, his love.

As we walked around the hills over the bay, he shared with me his experiences with teachers and school children, and I had seen their many happy smiling faces in photos in his albums. "The children learn about the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies, and it is one of the greatest moments of their childhood to witness the butterflies flying off. We could grow more food for the butterflies and make this hill a butterfly retreat with the help of parks and recreation, with school programs for children to visit the butterfliesImagine a group meditation with arms upraised and hundreds of butterflies fluttering down and alighting onto outstretched fingers and hands!" This vision would not be limited to Berkeley, but could be spread throughout the school systems of the world.

Patch Adams is one of the Honorary Board Members of the Butterfly Network, and in the footsteps of Patch, Alan Moore strives to bring more joy and humor into the lives of the elderly with plans for senior gardening centers, visits to senior centers by his Butterfly belly dancers and musicians, and theater shows representing the butterfly vision at festivals. Another Butterfly member, Vinnie, working for Hospice, has been bringing great care and healing to the dying, and even healed a premature baby that appeared to be dying.

"If ever could I leave you, it wouldn't be in springtime" I couldn't leave at all, but attempted to go by Greyhound and then by flight. At the final gate of the airport as the plane was leaving, Alan argued that the ticket must be changed so I could stay another day and go to Santa Cruz with him. We tried to reason it out together, but it was a frantic mess. I didn't want to go, any more than he wanted to let me go, but the struggle was made, and finally I admitted to him that if I didn't leave at that moment (Feb. 5th), I might never leave.

We made a plan to meet at the Rainbow Gathering in July. We held on to each other in the lobby in front of all the other passengers. We held on for dear life. I left as if a side of me had split off. I left blowing him kisses as if it weren't real that I was leaving. It was almost like dying, entering another world, a world apart from Him.

I wandered through my flights in a daze of loving Alan, missing him, wanting him. I'm still dreaming now of our reunion at the soon to arrive Rainbow Gathering in the summer. At the Denver airport I sent him this poem:

Enchanted Flight Above the Bay

Flying through the universe
I see your spirit radiating
through the pores of my being

you are the spirit of the butterflies
weaving magic spells of enchantment
thru the molecules of each moment

you are the spirit of freedom
singing power to the people
at every street corner, bus stop

you are the flutter of the wings of my heart
i carry your butterflies
i carry them within my heart

stuck like glue, the yellow swallowtails glimmer
atop your ear, in the grassy field of your hair
they too like the sweet pheromones of you
in their sacred mating dance

butterfly boy entering the mystic forest
towering above us eucalyptus trees like redwoods
scattered before us, eucalyptus leaves
like palm fronds upon our entry at
Jerusalem's gates

we have been lost in the holy city
week out of time
week out of eternity
the day the earth stood still

He replied: "Beautiful Rosy" and I am in bliss.

ROSE LIBERTE

End