Butterflies

Dance with me, the wind is your partner. He is carrying you. You are floating with the elegance of a ballerina. Smile and carry on, you are doing the right thing. Open your wings, feel the air against them. Soar slowly. You are delicate, you are colourful and vibrant. You are God. Dancing
and flying makes you happy. Your radiating smile makes me so happy.–  

“Little butterfly, tell me how you got here; tell me why it took you so long to get to this place?”

–  “Everything happens in good time. Just like spring follows winter and fall follows summer. I started as a caterpillar, crawling slowly on the ground. Then, I climbed the tree to make a cocoon with my body. Getting inside the cocoon is an essential step in the transformation. The cocoon is a happy place. It is so nice. It is warm and comfortable. It is so good to be in there. You are protected, nothing can get you. It is a safe place for you and only you. It is your little house of change. Do you feel how good it is to be in there? Feel the serenity. It is so peaceful and calm; you have all the room to grow at your own pace.”

“But why is it so hideous from the outside?”

– “It looks all tangled up and disorganized. It is muddled and colourless. The inside is what really matters. The little cocoon rocks like a cradle in the wind. But not to worry, it is solidly attached to the branch.

From the outside nothing appears to be altered, inside however, a grand transformation is happening in stillness. The body of the caterpillar is like a small paint brush. Look at its brittle hair. All carries its transformation to its tips. It is expanding, stretching out into the cocoon. Its beauty is unraveling like a beautiful painting that you are unrolling.

The space is getting tight. It’s okay because you now own it with your entire being. It is time to stretch outside and to let the world see you, see who you have become.

Look how remarkable your transformation is. The time spent inside the nest results in the dazzling butterfly that you have become. Take your wings and fly. Dance with the wind; carry your joy to all the flowers around you.

Their pollen is as vital to you as you are vital to them. Without each other, life is not possible as your intricately connected love carries through.

The Rain

Falling slowly to the ground, the gentle, soft and cleansing rain is bringing nature to life. Freeing the heat from the earth, I smell the explosion of its intensity. It is like fireworks as each drop is hitting the soil; lifting the dirt, lifting the little rocks. Sliding and gliding on the leaves and on the grass.

The drops are like music notes. Flip flop, drip, drop. Its music is rocking me slowly, it is soothing. The wind has joined in to carry the little drops on a journey. It is taking them to where they have never been, but nevertheless returning. They slide and roll collecting on their passage loose debris, sometimes dirt. They are gorged with the energy of what they are gathering.

Flip, flop, drip, drop, now hammering the ground harder. Pish, posh, pish, posh, their strength has increased, their passage is noticed. They have work to do. They have a mission. The water is penetrating the ground, making its way down, feeding the roots below. The roots are like little straws drinking from the juice of life. It is invigorating to drink from the love of God.

Sipping below, the water is creating a channel, a route, a way. It is getting stronger as it is congregating, creating a source, making an underground river. It is a buried treasure that we don’t see, but that we can access when we dig down and deep. The drops have gathered together on the ground and have formed a filet of water. It is following a path and knows its course.

The drop that started alone is now a river. The river has a direction; it is going to the ocean. The drop that fell from the sky that is now a river, will soon gain the strength of the ocean strength by joining the million drops that have followed their path. Inside them, they were programmed to do just that. Once they reached the immensity of this energy, they have the power to change the world by their movement, by the force of their flow; by their constant coming and going.

In this gigantic grouping of drops, the sun, this beautiful ball of energy radiating down is creating a mirror image of itself. Each drop is multiplying its beauty by reflecting back the light and the radiance of this gift. The warmth of the sun is making the drops dance, creating with the waves a very powerful movement. The drops are excited; they are getting lighter, so light that they start to float. They float like bubbles, zigzagging in the air.

As they are climbing up, they are getting lighter and lighter. The warmth of the sun is enveloping and inviting. It causes the drops to strive to be lighter, to float higher.

Dancing in the sky, they merge with other drops that have formed a fluffy white cloud. The cloud is gorged with mini droplets. Together and unstable in the sky, their heaviness is calling them to fall again and return to the ground. Their mission is not over, it is endless. It is the circle of life. Fall, rise and return guided by the power that is within. Guided by a deep sense of purpose that is unique. Tip, top, drip, drop, the rain is falling returning to stillness and calm. The rain drops will never be the same now that it knows that it belongs.

Editor’s Note:

I can’t help but read Julie’s words and think about her circumstances from which she writing from. By the time of this writing, Julie was living in Hospice after halting all treatment for her cancer. She knew her time on this Earth was coming to an end and she was absolutely desperate to put her thoughts to paper; fiercely determined to share her lessons with the world so that they could see what she saw and believe what she believed. I imagine her writing from her room, looking out her window or sitting outside, bundled up, looking out to the vast expanse of forest in the mountains of the Eastern Townships. It’s so easy to see how nature and its delicate details were observed by Julie, having grown up in this region where biodiversity is a pride to be protected.

My greatest take-away from reading the stories of the Butterfly and the Rain are Julie’s attention to the details. Julie had found a peace in her last months and more than that, she elevated her spirit to a place of pure light. I believe that she was capable of conquering fear and depression because of her (organic/natural) practice of mindfulness.

Throughout our website, our contributors reference this practice when explaining strategies they have used to manage their fear, anxiety and depression. I believe it is also a practice that opens up a space for more gratitude, that in turn, elevates us to a place of peace and happiness.

Mon amie Julie was really on to something. I am grateful for her lessons.

– Stacey aka WillowjakMama

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.

Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

Greater Good Magazine