What can we learn from Butterfly?

Dancing in the sunbeams as spring approaches

A small orange butterfly is doing an awkward dance of surprise at the mysterious boundary that is the kitchen window.

“How did this weird thing get here?” he seems to say. “And how in heaven do I get past it?”

Butterfly’s dance at the glass calls to mind a shared experience that many of us have spoken of when in community this winter: the energies of early 2015 have often been surprising, and for many of us, not at all gentle.

The way forward has sometimes seemed completely baffling, even terrifying.

From unpredictable and unseasonable weather around the world, to our own internal climate, where old patterns seem to rub up against the soul like an arthritic alleycat longing for a proper stretch – perhaps, like many of us, you have also found this winter a time of especially strange sleep.

But as we look closer we remember that Butterfly’s true medicine is one of infinite grace.

Her wings are woven with the delicate gratitude of life’s unfolding. She teaches us to bear witness to the cyclical nature of all life, including our own.  She reminds us to dance through change as if our bodies and minds were pure light. She sings the song of a soulful spirit who has chosen to experience growth and transformation in a body that is both exceedingly powerful and infinitely fragile, an incarnation that is constantly evolving and decidedly capable.

When Butterfly appears, we know that renewal and rebirth are just around the next sunbeam. If you have had a moment yet to walk outside on a warm day, you may have seen this for yourself.

In the high dry places, the whispering raucous of buttery wildflowers has already begun.

Listen! Can you hear it?

All around us, new life is beginning to sing its ceremonial song.

Butterfly’s wings will soon slow to a steady, gentle drumbeat as she shakes off the last of her sleepy confusion, and moves to alight and gather wildflower nectar, lending her support to the symphony of spring.

The 30 days before Spring Equinox are an incredible time to begin our own toetaps in time, and honor the harmony in our own heart that we are longing to call forth.

What is the song your heart is longing to sing this Spring?

Copyright © 2015 Laura Plato & Denise Sheehan, All rights reserved

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