Recently my little one and I went to her best friend’s birthday party at the Texas Discovery Gardens.  It is located on the Texas State Fair grounds and, when I was their age, it was essentially the botanical gardens for the city before the later arrival of the Dallas Arboretum.  I vividly remember going with my parents and absolutely loving it.  The two-story building was almost all glass and jammed with all sorts of tropical plants.  I can still feel my feet winding up and down the two narrow, steel staircases tightly spiraling from the upper to the lower level.  They were hidden behind rampant foliage in two corners.  Some would not even attempt them.  Over it all the rush of a roaring waterfall could be heard and I remember delighting in being able to walk behind it.  It was pure enchantment in the days long before the Dallas World Aquarium would have a five-story waterfall plunging dramatically down into a pool of sea turtles and manatees.  I had not been in ages and things, as they are wont to do, had changed.  Now it housed an entire place dedicated to the breeding of butterflies.  It is the first public garden in the state of Texas to be certified 100% organic by the Texas Organic Research Center, maintained using sustainable methods that conserve water and help protect the environment.  Much to my lament, the waterfall had been removed.  I believe they repurposed the basin, as it held a twinge of memory for me from so long ago.  As I wandered the familiar paths I discovered they had an emergence chamber for examining butterfly chrysalises and moth cocoons.  I was glad they’d labeled many of the plants and trees, as I had absolutely no idea what they were.  There was also a honeybee “tree” where one could observe busy bees in their hive making honey through the safety of plexiglass.  I remember at the Dallas Zoo when I was a kid they had an aviary one could enter, with all different sorts of birds flapping wildly all around you.  This was very much the same.  Only the butterflies were so fragile and so ephemeral, we were cautioned to watch where we stepped and not to touch them.  My favorite butterfly has long been the blue morpho, having glorious, bright iridescent blue wings edged with black on one side, while underneath its wings are a plain brown.  Their natural habitat is Central and South America and I learned they actually fly skyward when faced with predators and their wings become shockingly invisible.  Seeing it demonstrated was incredible.  Another species I fell in love with is the owl butterfly, which I was lucky to capture a picture of here.  Known for their huge “eyespots,” they truly look like the eyes of an owl.  Their camouflage, like my beloved blue morpho, is nothing short of amazing.  The American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, “Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”  I noticed the kiddos chasing butterflies came up crying and empty-handed.  But for those who sat quietly, their reward was the delicate stir of butterfly wings so close they could reach out and touch them.  I learned a lot from this experience with my child.  There is so much left to discover.