Butterflies

Have you ever watched a butterfly fly? They're not as deft and graceful as birds. They fly with some hesitation, not really following a straight path, and even the slightest wind seems to shift them off course. Yet this doesn't subtract from their beauty, in fact, it makes them all the more amazing.

While stopped at a traffic light, I watched as a single, lonely, yet breathtaking butterfly clumsily fluttered over my car and into the meadow to my left, disappearing into the tall grass. It's the simplest things like this that get me to thinking, which really there is no shortage of when it comes to me. Yet I began to relate to the situation, right down to the movement of its wings.

I often feel as if I exist in this big, ravenous world all alone - just me, surrounded by greatness - greatness of size, greatness of mind. And then comes along the wind, and where I once had focus, it's lost just as quickly as it was attained. I get side tracked by the silly and stupid of this world, those things that we only read in books and see on the big screen.

But like the butterfly, we change and we learn. We tuck deep inside ourselves the remembrance of what we once were, never to forget. And then we change, and not by choice. It's just something that this life requires of us, in order to survive. It's like they say, "Live and learn." But maybe it should be the other way around. Maybe we ought to learn and then live, live according to what we've learned. We might actually save ourselves some heartache.

So here I am, a butterfly that's once again been blown off course, chasing the clouds, delicate, and maybe even a little beautiful too. And so we learn, and continue living the good life.