THERE IS A REASON FOR EVERYTHING

I thought I was the last straggler coming down the stairs from the Roosevelt Island tram because, usually, I am. I like to have one last look towards the tidal strait, an aerial view so to speak. However, today there was someone behind me. I heard a voice calling, "Miss! Miss!" Surely it couldn't be about me I thought but I turned just the same in case I had dropped something. A woman I had noticed and admired on the tram said, "There's a butterfly on your back!" I had liked her simply cut hair (so free and unconcerned) and the fact that she had a missing tooth right where I would wish a missing tooth. Why will no dentist allow me the pleasure of taking out a tooth?? I have so many! The news of the butterfly was as extraordinary to her as it was to me. "He's a monarch!" "I wish I could see it. Him," I replied. She told me to stay still and she would flick gently so he would fly away and then I could, which is what happened. She said she had never seen this before, a butterfly like an "angel on the shoulder." She looked puzzled as though wondering what my secret was. I blurted, "In all of Manhattan, I guess he landed on Calm City." She giggled, "Yes! Yes! You are Calm City!" Then she dashed off. It was one of Life's magical moments which I would have missed if I had hurried to catch the previous tram instead of stopping to talk to a sari-dressed tourist who asked where the indoor/outdoor pool on Roosevelt Island was. I didn't even know there was a pool on Roosevelt Island. I lingered the seven minutes for the "Tram Approaching" sign while talking the consequence of which was the butterfly. Living near the "Feelin' Groovy" bridge is perfect metaphorically. "Slow down. You move too fast. Gotta make the morning last." I had slowed down; not moved too fast; made the morning last; and, thus, a butterfly became past of my future.