One weekend morning, we all headed for the Bronx Zoo.

I had on my usual pair of denims, a white shirt, and a jacket that was light as a cardigan. The early summer in NY had that wonderfully comfortable warmth in the air.

The Bronx Zoo is the fourth largest zoo in the world. It is also one of the few places where rare species of butterflies are kept in their dedicated Butterfly Garden.

I remember Asha once told me that the vision of those butterflies gracefully and freely dancing through the skies is the source of her creative inspiration.

“So relaxed and elegant, I think it’s wonderful if you can move through life like those butterflies. I want to be a woman who keeps a butterfly-like composure.”

Then, a blue-winged butterfly began to dance in front of our little girl, Nico, as though to be egging her to follow.

Nico followed this graceful guide toward this direction which seem to lead to a pond.

“Nico, don’t go over there, it’s dangerous,” I said.
But Asha chimed in with, “She’s fine, let’s follow where Nico wants to go.”

The blue-winged guide continued to fly in front of Nico as though to be guiding her through the Garden.

“You’re right, ok.”

Asha has always had this natural way of accepting things as they happened, trusting her instincts. It’s not to say that her instincts always served her well. But when things went south, she never took it as a failure but an opportunity to learn. It’s easy to reject and deny. She always chose to accept whatever that transpired in her life as it did.

This is something that was difficult for me to do and I really love and respect this side of Asha.

“The Chronicles of Narnia” is the book she always kept by her side. It was one which her mom read to her when she was little. She made it a point to offer the same experience to her own daughter, Nico.

"In the book, there is a story titled, 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.' When the four brothers reached Narnia, there is a scene where a bird appears in front of the four brothers and begins to guide them on a path. The bunch instinctively follows the butterfly except for Edmund who refuses to follow the bird, giving his own logic. But at the end, they all follow the bird and end up having these wonderful encounters and experience.”

I was tracing back this story Asha told me one time while I watched Nico follow our blue-winged guide.

Soon, we came to a bit of a clearing in the Garden and the butterfly decided to rest on the shoulders of this lady that was sitting on the bench.

“The butterfly has stopped here!,” Nico said with a smile.