The Butterfly

In my blogtastic travels, I came across Raven's writing and I really liked her weekly word challenge. I am always into trying something new, so I thought I'd give it a shot here. The concept is to write a cohesive, short paragraph using the ten given words or phrases.



words: gentle spring rain, mammoth, soap opera, worry, bubble gum, garden gate, seizure, of Biblical proportions, paralysis, wrinkles


The butterfly's paralysis was only temporary. He was entranced by the enormous blooms on the hydrangea, freshly opened after drinking their fill of last week's gentle spring rain. It wasn't long before his wings were all aflutter, driving him this way and that to peruse each petal pointedly. Just past the garden gate he became aware of the mammoth groundhog, digging a hole of Biblical proportions underneath the fine stone statue presiding over the garden. Overcome with worry, the butterfly began to interrogate the groundhog as to why he chose to dig in that very spot. The butterfly feared the hole would lead the statue to become unbalanced and teeter until it toppled on top of a delicate flower waiting helplessly below. The groundhog answered "Fear not, butterfly. I have many years experience in digging such holes and I can personally vouch for the safety of all things in your garden. Anxiety does not serve you well, you will only develop premature wrinkles, or perhaps even suffer a seizure. Your disastrous scenario sounds more like something from a soap opera; let's just leave the digging to the professionals, ok?" As the groundhog turned diligently back to his hole, the butterfly realized that he would be unable to stop a falling statue anyway, and that perhaps the groundhog was right after all. He turned to float to another corner of the garden and admire the sweet scent of the honeysuckle, on his way he spied a turtle spitting out his chewed piece of bubble gum. "Excuse me, turtle, but is that necessary...." began the butterfly.