Dancing with the Butterfly-From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Thanks so much for joining me today for a little break. I have a fun story to share with you so grab your coffee and come on in for a bit.

Just a couple of weeks ago, my assistant and I were in Texas at the C.S. Lewis Writers’ retreat and when I got a chance to take a break, we went exploring the sights around the camp in search of nature’s beauty so she could capture it with her camera. Walking up the hill was invigorating and calming at the same time. It was such a peaceful place full of woodsy-type smells, the sound of whispering branches as the wind rustled through them, birds talking off in the distance, and other creatures, too. At one point we even saw a deer saunter across the road and take off in the forest of trees.

Suddenly something sort of whimsical caught my attention, its colors dancing before my eyes, teasing me and taunting me to follow it in flight. It was a beautiful butterfly. As I watched it traverse the air just in front of us, almost as if it was showing off, I was mesmerized. The little beauty pulled me out of my trance when it landed on the ground just in front of us.

I started to move toward it ever so slowly and motioned for Jocelyn to join me so she could capture this beautiful butterfly who had its wings wide open, in all its glory, as if he was showing off. She got one picture but as she crouched down beside me and  got the camera focused, the little bugger shut his wings and then after a pause, took flight again.

We stood and watched it, expecting it to just fly away, but instead, it flew around us and around us and toward us and then away from us and then back toward us. This went on for a couple of minutes and suddenly, in my gut, I realized this butterfly was wanting to dance and if it had a voice, I could only imagine the joyful laughter we may have heard coming from this beautiful creature and the pleas for us to join him for some playful dancing.

I lost count of how many times we danced with the butterfly, stopping when he did, bending down to try and capture him with his wings wide open displaying his colorful splendor and each time we would get just right, and Jocelyn would get ready to click and smack! Wings shut, he would sit there for a pause, probably laughing at us, and then he’d get up and take flight again.

It made me think of the pursuit of happiness, how just when we think we’ve arrived, bam! Here comes heartache, trouble, trials and our happiness takes flight again. And then unannounced, it returns, flittering and fluttering, tempting and teasing us to reach out and grasp at it just one more time because for sure this time we’ll catch it only to have it intercepted with life’s disappointments and troubles.

This happened enough to where we thought we’d never get the shot so we began to walk the way we came and as I turned around, my mouth came open in disbelief; he was following us! At one point he came so close to my face I jerked backwards in my reflexes. We were back in the dance, falling for his tricks when he would land on the ground with his wings wide open only to shut them when we were ready to take a picture.

Suddenly I got an idea and picked up a leaf. I stood up and held my arm straight out with the leaf in between my index finger and my thumb. “Be still and see if he comes,” I told Jocelyn. It wasn’t thirty seconds and suddenly, there he was, perched on the leaf in my hand looking right at me. Happiness bubbled up inside me and I could barely contain myself, but I did. I stayed right there, in the happiness of the moment before he took flight again!

Oh that we would stay in the moments filled with happiness, soaking up the laughter they bring, not worrying about it going away, or about tomorrow for that moment is what we have here and now.

Joyfully,

Evinda