Butterflies...

I believe the world speaks to us...and if we listen, it has a lot to teach.  Little did I know that butterflies would be my link to both what is real and what is spiritual.  It is the butterflies that remind me of who I am, who remind me that I am never, ever alone, and who have taught me to be all that I can be in giving back to a world that has so richly blessed me.

 

It started just after the passing of my grandmother...and I think she knew it would take a bit to notice, as the gorgeous yellow butterfly was as determined to follow me on my long bike ride up Squaw Ridge as I was to make the summit, never pausing in its zeal to follow me.  For nearly five hours I had the pleasure of its magical company, not realizing that something spiritual could be behind its ever-present place alongside me that day in the yard, with memories of my grandmother fresh in my mind.

 

Not long after that, I lost my beloved grandfather.  While knowing these milestones are a normal part of life and are not compeletly unexpected, I still felt the loss deep inside my core.  One day, during my daily garden caretaking, I was greeted by not one, but two yellow butterflies.  Once again, these beautiful reminders refused to leave my side, just as the love of my grandparents have never left my heart.  I began to suspect that these two lovely yellow butterflies were my grandparents, steering me forward in yet more positive ways, reminding me that life goes on and that love never ends.

 

My father loved the color blue, and it should not have surprised me that after his passing, the most beautiful of blue butterflies I've ever seen followed me an entire afternoon in my yard.  And alongside this blue beauty were two yellow butterflies.  My old friends perhaps?  I watched as these three butterflies took up the space all around me.  I saw them as my grandparents and my father, reunited in the garden, together again.  I couldn't ignore my blue butterfly.  Floating, soaring, resting, fliting about, as if it were my father, saying "look my love, look at my wings.  See how I dance on the wind. See how free I am."  The tears never left my eyes, nor the smile on my face - to imagine my father was there with me in the graceful dance of a blue butterfly.

 

As if that weren't enough, my belief that butterflies are my spiritual link to the natural world came not long after my time with the blue butterfly, when my husband and I tragically lost a dear friend, and a man to whom my husband was a mentor, at too-young-of-an-age.  My husband had patiently listened to my numerous butterfly experiences and had politely understood, altough he was never there to witness the miracle of MY butterflies.  Yet, during a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming - on a long horseback trail ride - a huge, exquisite Monarch butterfly did not follow me but rather my husband, not leaving the air around which my husband rode his horse the entire time.  My husband, with tears in his eyes, nodded his shared understanding of the significance of yet another spiritual experience with a beautiful butterfuly.

 

Upon our next anniversary, my husband and I purchased a new setting for my wedding ring.  It was beautiful, brand new and I loved it.  It wasn't until it was properly purchased and home with me that we noticed the craftsman had left his designer's mark on the inside of the band.  Something we had not noticed at the jewelers...the mark of two butterflys inside the band, near the pulse of the beating of my heart.  Needless to say, our hearts were full, finally understanding our connection with the Earth, with the Spirit, and with the love that we believe binds us in all ways.

 

The symbolism of a butterfly is one of change and rebirth . Of finding joy in life and in the lightness of being. It is a symbol of powerful transformations.

 

My butterflies, my life, my passion, my heart are all committed to powerful transformations.  For me, my family, my friends, my business associates, and my clients.  My butterflies have come back to remind me, in my darkest times, that life is full of transformations.  That there is power in the laws of nature, the spirit and most of all, love.  

 

I have realized that my butterflies connect me to the world and in that world I can and will make a difference.  Like those beautiful creatures, I too can bring beauty, understanding, inspiration, and transformation to the world around me and to the people I love.  They have shown me, on the wings of beauty, that it is not about what we get, but about what we give.

 

It is my commitment to give powerful transformations to those who seek to live like the butterfly - dancing on the winds of joy and love, living life in the most poignent and beautiful of ways....