Dr. Sally Stone
Butterflies

Tuesday Sept 17, 2024, 7:30 PM

The evolution of my work… My nature photography integrates conservation, writing, art, and spiritual practice. I began taking nature pictures as a teenager, then turned to writing and photographically illustrating children’s books for my nephew in the 1990s. In 2007, a bicycle accident and brush with death forced me to retire earlier than planned from a 23-year career in education as an elementary school teacher, educational coach, and college professor.

While healing from a rare nervous system disorder following the accident, I studied hypnotherapy to empower my healing process and turned to nature for consolation, inspiration, and spiritual connection. I transformed my gardens into native prairie landscape gardens to bring nature to my doorstep.

Since then, monarch butterflies have arrived each spring and lay eggs in my gardens. I collect the eggs and nurture them through their life cycle in outdoor enclosures. Monarchs are unusually friendly and easy to handle. Studying their life cycle and population decline deepened my wonder and commitment to their conservation.

My backyard butterfly work led to writing and photographically illustrating a children’s book in 2017 entitled, I Am a Butterfly. In her review, Tierra Curry, Senior Scientist at The Center for Biological Diversity, said, “The author’s own dazzling photographs guide the reader on the fascinating journey of metamorphosis and serve as a metaphor for the beauty to be found on the other side of surprising life changes.”

To further support the monarchs, I used my photos to create several teaching resources and built a webpage that documents, in more depth, the monarch’s life cycle and migration. I speak and do author events at local garden centers, nature events, senior homes, and elementary schools.

In a lucky coincidence, I grew up and settled in northern Illinois where monarchs live from the end of May through September. My rare nervous system disorder is largely in remission, which allows me to enjoy my hypnotherapy clients, gardening, photography, writing, family and friends, and, of course, visits to my local butterfly house.