Nature's Mystery - Springtime

Something I made for the NaturesMystery contest. malintra-shadowmoon.deviantart…

I chose this composition because I think groundhogs, butterflies, and dandelions signify the mystery of nature.

Groundhogs hibernate through winter, their bodies going cold and their systems slowing to almost a stop. They seem to die underground, but when spring comes, they wake back up, perfectly fine and as healthy and vibrant as ever.

Butterflies start life as blind, clunky, worm-like caterpillars, but when they enter their chrysalis during metamorphosis, their entire bodies dissolve, melting into a living slush before reforming into something brand new, beautiful, and free. Everything old is reformed and made again before the old shell splits to reveal and entirely new creature, the glittering, dazzling butterfly.

Dandelions are hated plants for their tendency to grow prodigiously where they aren't wanted, but it's this very tenacity that makes them such incredible symbols of life's persistence. No matter how much they're mown, plucked, and sprayed, they spring right back up, digging their roots in deep and casting their seeds to the wind to start a new generation.

That and all three of these things disappear from sight during winter, to remerge during spring. Which is perhaps the greatest mystery of all. The regeneration and renewal of living things, year after year with the dawn of springtime.