It was an hour before dusk sometime in June and the massive garden walls reflected the warm evening sunlight.

He and I watched two butterflies chasing one another in a stylized dance of love.  This dance reached its conclusion when they came to rest on the step immediately below our feet, where they stayed for a moment, slowly moving their beautiful wings. Two painted ladies who had recently been born and never been so close to a human spirit.  “They are bowing”, he stated pensively.

I was delighted by his strange words and peered more closely at the tiny coloured insects.  Fully in tune with one another, the butterflies took renewed flight in unison, fluttering through the force of their own energy for a few seconds before landing once again.  They settled on his right knee this time and I wondered what it was that had attracted them – and others – to him, as if they were magnetised.

It was not long before they took off again, this time disappearing into the ether; leaving us to follow the path they made through the gates of heaven.  I sensed that a turning point had come in my relationship with him, which had been growing for some time.  With an unspoken agreement, we got to our feet and followed the two butterflies through the gateway.