Enjoy this spring story now!

Read this collection now to experience the joy of gardening! [GreenPrints]( May 20, 2023 [GET instant JOY Every single time you read one of these delightful gardening stories!]( When you read this GreenPrints Special Collection Joy of Gardening: Engaging & enjoyable stories to lift your spirits, you get more than 100 delightful and joyous stories that you'll connect with and come to relish. Start reading—and enjoying—these motivational stories right now! Dear Gardener, You deserve to have joy in your life every day! When you read the special GreenPrints Collection [Joy of Gardening: Engaging & enjoyable stories to lift your spirits]( today, you get instant joy from stories that you'll connect with ... and will find worth reading again whenever you need a pick-me-up. Joy and happiness are essential functions for a good life. And gardeners are certainly known for having tons of joy. [Joy of Gardening Collection]( In fact, joy and happiness deliver you many benefits: - Being joyous and positive can increase your productivity levels—and that means a more productive garden! - Happier people engage in more exercise—and gardeners get their share of exercise on a regular basis! - When you exude joy, other people want to be around you and that means healthier relationships in every aspect of your life! - Joy also contributes to better physical health—studies show that happier people are more resistant to colds and viruses and even heal faster! - And a really big bonus: Joy and happiness have been found to contribute to a longer, healthier life so get out there and enjoy every minute! “Birthing Butterflies” is just one of the 100+ stories in the GreenPrints Special Collection [Joy of Gardening: Engaging & enjoyable stories to lift your spirits]( that will delight you and give you great joy. Literally, you could sit down once a day and read a story from this Collection, and you’ll get daily joy for more than three months straight—plus, this Collection is growing regularly, so you’ll soon have even more stories to access! And there’s nothing wrong about going back and re-reading your favorite stories as another way to get a daily dose of joy. Here's the story from the GreenPrints Collection [Joy of Gardening: Engaging & enjoyable stories to lift your spirits]( entitled "Birthing Butterflies"—a story where hope springs eternal! [Birthing Butterflies]( Sometimes nature catches me completely off guard. By Liz Rasley [Plastic Fork] The world is still full of so many wonders. I have to remind myself of this on days when watching the news makes my chest tighten. Liz, I chide myself, move. I do. I stand up, step outdoors—and spot courting blackbirds gleefully circling over the tops of my crepe myrtles. See? I tell myself, life is still full of miracles. Oh, how small these wonders often are. And how often they crop up where we least expect it. A couple of Springs ago, one of my sweet, thoughtful friends here in Texas asked if we’d like to care for swallowtail butterfly eggs that she’d found while prepping her lawn for mowing. I’ll admit I was amazed, first, by how she was able to see them (bet she didn’t use her reading glasses to examine the leaves, like I would have) and then, that I would be the first she asked to care for these eggs, a compliment—and one that didn’t feel like it would take a bunch of work or time. I was certain they would be the lowest-maintenance living thing on my list, considering how much effort caring for kids, a dog, a husband, a garden, and the other random stuff that comes along (hamster, laundry, etc.) takes. Well. After several weeks of being a new mom again, fretting over the light/time/air temperature and other miscellaneous requirements of these new babies called butterfly eggs, I’m here to say that any living thing, really, is an undertaking. Even now, as I fertilize my flowering pumpkin patch, it’s not lost on me, the effort to care well for all living things, down to their watering patterns and how often you need to buy them shoes. Back to the butterflies: they hatched, eventually. From eggs came yellow- and black-striped pudgy caterpillars, eating everything in sight for what seemed like eons. During that particular phase of their life, I kept getting up at night and pacing—are they fat enough yet? Do they have enough food? Was that the proper type of green leaves? Do they need more? What about the light? While I had told myself I had gotten these eggs-now-caterpillars for our kids, what ended up happening was that I got to tend to them. Caretaking, it seemed, was going to be a delayed-onset instinct with my own offspring. One day I woke up charged, for no real reason. It felt like a big day. Several weeks before, I had watched the chunky caterpillars form into chrysalises, so from all my projected arrival dates (some calculated logically most felt in my heart), I figured today might be the day for a butterfly to emerge. And then, as I was ambling out in the garden, one of them hatched. Hatched! I scurried over to look. With silent tears, I watched as the butterfly, new and fresh, awkwardly stumbled on delicate legs and cracked open its wings. I cried in joy. Not since my own children were born had I been so moved. But here I was—crying over this totally mundane (yet extraordinary) act of nature, a chrysalis turning into a butterfly. If a reporter had been privy to this, the news headline might have read: Middle-aged Woman in Slippers Found Crying Over Caterpillars and Butterflies in Backyard Am I proud of that? No. But sometimes nature is so chock full of unbridled hope that it catches you completely off guard. Even before you’ve changed out of slippers. That year, as I watched several caterpillars turn into butterflies, I recalled my own children being born, and the fresh bite of new hope—unrestrained, unburdened, non-weary hope. It inspired such a deep, innocent expectation in me. To this day, I haven’t found anything as hopeful as the birth of new things—whether that be new babies, butterflies, or even the hopeful, courageous, strong green sprout that appears when you had long figured it was dead. This year, I’m again looking for butterfly eggs. It’s about the right season for them. I haven’t found any yet, but I haven’t given up. Truth be told, not seeing eggs may be an indication of my eyeglass prescription needing to be amped up more than anything else. I may feel young with hope, but my eyes are still middle-aged. Sitting on the porch, I see monarchs, traveling up through Texas by way of our backyard. And more than once, I’ve thought about hope, wonder, and how nature is at once so completely ordinary, mundane, and yet overflowing with wonders—full of miracles we deem ordinary and take for granted. Seems like there is a big lesson in there. For me, at least.❖ Illustration by Patricia Savage Writer Liz Rasley celebrates the joy of nurturing nature, and the enduring sense of hope that comes with it. Including this featured story — "Birthing Butterflies" — you get all 100+ stories in this GreenPrints Special Collection on gardening joy and happiness, including: [Joy of Gardening TOC 1]( [Joy of Gardening TOC 2]( [Joy of Gardening TOC 3](  [Joy of Gardening Collection]( And new stories are being added to this Special Collection all the time—you get access to all of them! Please read what some subscribers say about how GreenPrints helps and entertains them: “The wonderful stories in the magazine have given me hope about mankind. We are surrounded by sad and difficult times in a polarized culture. Your heartful approach and spirit shine through. Thank you!” —Cathy Gornick, New Hartford, NY “I’m renewing for three years. I’m not sure I’ll be around in three years. But I want to make sure you are!” —Susan Ward, Middleton, WI “Thank you, GreenPrints family, for providing calm, joy, and wisdom in these crazy times.” —Lee Ann Hawkins, Marion, IN The only way to get full access to the GreenPrints Collection [Joy of Gardening: Engaging & enjoyable stories to lift your spirits]( 13 other Collections filled with gardening stories about healing gardens, gardening science, animals in the garden, mystical gardens, gardening mishaps, and more—is to get [GreenPrints All-Access Membership]( with a whole year’s worth of stories in a full subscription to GreenPrints Magazine, both print and digital editions … and benefits galore for only $20 for an entire year! [$20 SPECIAL! GET A 67% DISCOUNT WHEN YOU CLAIM YOUR BENEFITS TODAY!]( [Claim your GreenPrints All-Access Membership now, and you get all the gardening stories to delight you, make you laugh, and fill you with heartwarming inspiration and motivation. 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[Claim Your $20 Membership Now]( Summary of All-Access Membership Benefits 01 A full year of GreenPrints All-Access Membership, an exclusive club for those who want to enjoy the greatest gardening stories ever—save $40 off the annual cover price, a 67% discount! $60/year Now Only: $20/year! 02 1-year subscription to GreenPrints Magazine, quarterly issues filled with humorous and heartwarming stories—in print, delivered directly to your door, and sent to you digitally as soon as issues are published! INCLUDED 03 Full and immediate access to the GreenPrints Digital Library—your membership includes access to the current digital magazine issue and 30+ back issues, a digital version of The Weeder's Reader—plus the library is constantly growing with new content regularly added! INCLUDED 04 Instant and unlimited access to all GreenPrints Collections—curated and comprehensive collections of stories from the heart, organized around specific topics such as humor, joy, romance, mystical and healing gardens, and gardening mishaps. And audio collections for your listening enjoyment! INCLUDED 05 Full access to quarterly kits, printable and practical! Seasonal Garden Planning Calendar Kits, quarterly seasonal Celebration Kits, and Garden Collection Kits—all downloadable and printable! INCLUDED 06 GreenPrints Insider—You get our exclusive email newsletter, for premium members only, to guide you through the GreenPrints Library by highlighting articles, magazine issues, story collections, and audio collections that you won't want to miss—delivered regularly to your email inbox! INCLUDED 07 FREE BONUS: The Weeder’s Reader—a compilation of the sixteen greatest stories ever published by GreenPrints. You get a FREE copy mailed to you, plus instant and unlimited access to the digital version in the library! FREE [Claim Your $20 Membership Now]( Become a [GreenPrints All-Access Member]( today—while this special $20 offer lasts! Sincerely, [Bill Dugan] Bill Dugan Editor & Publisher GreenPrints P.S. Claim your benefits with a spot in [GreenPrints All-Access Membership]( today—only $20 for an entire year with this Special Offer, a 67% discount off the regular price! P.P.S. You deserve all the benefits of these joyous and happy stories—please act now to claim your [GreenPrints All-Access Membership]( and get started smiling and laughing every day! [GreenPrints All-Access Membership Special Offer—Only $20!]( 67% Off the Cover Price Now! [GreenPrints all access](  Claim your GreenPrints All-Access Membership today and get all the greatest gardening stories ever—heartwarming and funny, for you now! 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