If you were to walk up to Arthur Bonner and say, “Hey, Butterfly Man,” his face would break into a smile. The title suits him.And he loves it.

Arthur Bonner works with the Palos Verdes blue butterfly (蝴蝶), once thought to have died out. Today the butterfly is coming back—thanks to him. But years ago if you’d told him this was what he’d be doing someday, he would have laughed, “You’re crazy.” As a boy, he used to be “a little tough guy on the streets”. At age thirteen, he was caught by police for stealing. At eighteen, he landed in prison for shooting a man.

“I knew it had hurt my mom,” Bonner said after he got out of prison.“So I told myself I would not put my mom through that pain again.”

One day he met Professor Mattoni, who was working to rebuild the habitat (栖息地) for an endangered butterfly called EI Segundo blue.

“I saw the sign ‘Butterfly Habitat’ and asked, ‘How can you have a habitat when the butterflies can just fly away?’” Bonner recalls,“Dr. Mattoni laughed and handed me a magnifying glass (放大镜), ‘Look at the leaves.’ I could see all these caterpillars (蝴蝶的幼虫) on the plant. Dr. Mattoni explained, ‘Without the plant, there are no butterflies.’”

Weeks later, Bonner received a call from Dr. Mattoni, who told him there was a butterfly that needed help. That was how he met the Palos Verdes blue. Since then he’s been working for four years to help bring the butterfly back. He grows astragalus, the only plant the butterfly eats. He collects butterflies and brings them into a lab to lay eggs. Then he puts new butterflies into the habitat.

The butterfly’s population, once almost zero, is now up to 900. For their work, Bonner and Dr. Mattoni received lots of awards. But for Bonner, he earned something more: he turned his life around.

For six years now Bonner has kept his promise to stay out of prison. While he’s bringing back the Palos Verdes blue, the butterfly has helped bring him back, too.

Tom arrived at the bus station quite early for Paris bus. The bus for Paris would not leave until five to twelve. He saw a lot of people waiting in the station. Some were standing in line, others were walking around. There was a group of school girls. Their teacher was trying to keep them in line. Tom looked around but there was no place for him to sit.

He walked into the station café. He looked up at the clock there. It was only twenty to twelve. He found a seat and sat down before a large mirror on the wall. Just then, Mike, one of Tom’s workmates came in and sat with Tom.

“What time is your bus?” asked Mike.

“There’s plenty of time yet,” answered Tom.

“Well, I’ll get you some more tea then,” said Mike.

They talked while drinking. Then Tom looked at the clock again. “Oh! It’s going backward (倒行)!” he cried. “A few minutes ago it was twenty to twelve and now it’s half past eleven.”

“You’re looking at the clock in the mirror.” said Mike. Tom was so sad. The next bus was not to leave for another hour. Since then Tom has never liked mirrors.

Tired of the busy and chaotic life in Las Vegas, Nevada for nearly ten years, my family and I decided to slow things down. We wanted to lead an environmental-friendly life.

None of us felt that this could be accomplished where we were living and we all agreed that a move to the country would be great for everyone.

Before long we set about looking for a home in Yucca, Arizona, a very small town of less than 1, 000 people. When I called to inquire about the property, I was informed that there was no electricity available in the area. What? No electricity? I almost denied the idea immediately. But what better way is there to go green? After giving it a second thought, we decided to put in an offer and moved in on Thanksgiving Day.

When we first moved to the property, we did some remodeling (改造) and stayed in our motor home. We were faced with real challenges at the time, which just made us work harder. We slowly got things fixed and moved into the house after 38 days.

While living here for the past four months has been a big adjustment, there are many benefits to living off the grid (电线). I think one of the most educational lessons is teaching my kids the importance of conservation. They used to take water, power and gas for granted. We started taking quicker showers, turning off the water while brushing our teeth. What’s more, we are also trying to make other changes which include reducing the amount of trash we generate by recycling, growing our own organic vegetables and re-purposing things that we would normally throw.

Overall, going off the grid has been great for our family. I hope that once my kids move out of the house, they will keep the habits that they have learned by living off the grid.