Butterfly

On my Momma, we don’t see the same things we used to growing up. I used to see ladybugs. We used to catch lightning bugs and butterflies. Oh, the abundance of butterflies that were around growing up.

My mom taught us how to catch butterflies when we were kids. It took patience, quietness, and stealth. You had to wait until it landed and walk up on it quietly. Wait for it to close its wings, then go in and hold it by those closed wings.

She only let us hold them for a little while, then we would gently place them back on the flower or leaf they were perched on, leaving a dusty residue on our fingers.

People really sleep on how awesome butterflies are. The biggest thing is how they even come into existence. I’m sure you’ve heard, again and again, all the analogies about being a caterpillar and evolving into a butterfly.

But what gets lost in the process is that it’s not even what I’d call evolving, but rather a full rebirth.

You see, when they’re in the chrysalis, they don’t just sprout wings. They literally dissolve into liquid and rebuild themselves into a completely different creature.

What the hell am I talking about? Why does it matter?

Because there’s an analogy in that for life. And hell, for me honestly, I’m in such a transitional time in my life. I feel like everything around me is breaking down in that same way. Everything I’ve known is dissolving or changing.

And like the butterfly, I’m sure there’s fear in that dissolving of self. But it’s a necessary process. And though I don’t know where this leads, I can only hope to emerge a beautiful butterfly.

Here we were, these kids grabbing butterflies, the result of a full breakdown, unaware of what life, our very own chrysalis, would bring to us or even when. Not realizing it’s a journey that may happen again and again and again.

I don’t know how long this stage will last, but if you’re dealing with challenges and hoping to emerge anew, please be reminded that we are all in our own stages of rebirth.

I was reminded of this when, for the first time in many years, the largest monarch I’ve ever seen landed right beside me.

Remember….brace yourself, move quietly, be patient, with stealth and like the butterfly I caught my mother’s message to me.

“Transformation was never meant to feel comfortable.