If I were a butterfly…

Everyone has that one special place in their lives that they consider to be their happy place. It might be a spot in your backyard or neighborhood. Maybe it’s your childhood home or a special bench at a park. I imagine this place is a respite from the daily grind and a place where peace may be sought. I have numerous places that make me happy for various reasons, but none that are more special to me or offer me greater peace than South Haven, Michigan. On a recent trip, I was watching a monarch butterfly on milkweed in the drifts off the North Beach fluttering all about. I was remarking to myself at how beautiful and peaceful of a place it would be to flutter. My husband was watching the same monarch and said, “If I were a butterfly, I would be in South Haven, too.”

I’ve been going to South Haven since I was a little girl. It’s on the southwest side of Michigan, approximately three and a half hours north of Indianapolis on US-31. It is a place that is filled with nothing but fond memories.

When I was a little girl, I remember getting ice cream with my folks and sister at Captain Nemos. We would walk alongside the beautiful yachts and choose hypothetically which million-dollar boat we would choose to be our own and what we would name it.  I remember walking down the pier to the red lighthouse and looking out on the water at the vastness of Lake Michigan, just basking in the glory of God’s infinite creation. I remember walking along the beach with my dad and collecting rocks. I remember watching the bridge go up and down to allow for the large boats to pass through. I remember playing in the sand with my sister and going to the toy store.  I remember eating the stack of onion rings served on a paper towel rod at Clementines. I remember walking all over the town shopping and driving out on the Blue Star Highway into Saugatuck. I remember feeding the ducks over the side of dockside restaurants.

My dad at the end of the pier in South Haven, Mich. (Photo provided by Megan Rathz)

I have so many fond memories as a family that once I met my husband, it was just natural for me to bring him to a place that I so deeply love. As soon as my husband experienced South Haven, he not only got it, but fell in love with it, too. We have been countless times since we’ve been together. He knows the town as well, if not better than me. It went from being my happy place to ours.

South Haven is a place where I can always feel the presence of my dad. There is a photo of my dad that I took as a little girl from behind where he’s sitting at the end of the pier looking out at Lake Michigan. I have looked at this picture so many times, wondering to myself what he was thinking as he was sitting there in absolute peace. What was going through his head?

There are times in your life when you really see that things have come full circle. For me, South Haven is one of those experiences. I have gone from being the little girl taken on the trip to South Haven to the mom taking the little girl and boy to South Haven. Instead of me picking out rocks with my dad, I watch my little girl hold my husband’s hand and walk along the beach selecting the perfect rocks for her fairy garden. I went from being the little girl selecting my favorite ice cream to the mom bringing her kids to the same shop. Different name, but same shop and no matter what it’s called now…it will always be Captain Nemos. It’s like Deer Creek.

Instead of my sister and me playing in the sand, I watch my kids make a sandcastle and throw crackers over the dockside restaurant to feed the ducks. My kids are asking me to walk down the pier and look out at the same water as I did when I was a little girl. We wait for the same bridge to go up and down.

So much in my life has changed since I was a little girl, but somehow when I’m in South Haven, it seems like so much is still the same. The simplicity and old-fashioned times to be had in South Haven are not only priceless, they are also timeless. I guess I feel a sense of closeness to my dad when I’m there because so much is the same and there is so little in my life that I can say that about. The restaurants and storefronts have changed over the years, but time still stands still in South Haven. It always has. How many places in our life can we really say make us feel the same way as when we were a kid?

It really got me thinking about nature and how birds and other creatures have the chance to migrate anywhere they want and they settle in certain places. If I was a butterfly, I would without hesitation find myself in South Haven, too.  If you could be a butterfly anywhere, where would you go? Where is your happy spot?

Megan Rathz is a wife, mother, and teacher. She says everything she has ever learned in life came from her Master Gardener mother.