The Butterfly Connection - Part II
…And Then You Die
Some time ago I’d had a beautiful experience helping to save a butterfly (The Butterfly Connection). Just a few days later, when I went outside
to feed my rescue cats as usual, I noticed a torn piece of butterfly
wing a couple of feet from where I was standing, on the concrete pad
where I place the food. My heart sank. And as I instinctively looked
down, I saw the dead body of a butterfly, belly up, partially torn up.
Right there, by my feet, as if it was meant for me to see it and suffer
for seeing it. At least, that’s how I interpreted at the time. Of
course, I could had simply accepted the facts that it was butterfly
season and we have several TNR cats around who like to hunt. They also
like to present us with the occasional “gift” in appreciation for our
services to them. I could have felt even more appreciation for the fact
that I got to save a butterfly just a week before, and made peace with
the fact that, unfortunately, you can’t save them all. It’s life. Death
happens. Moving on.
Instead, I took that as a slap on the face by
the “powers from above.” And the very same high I had felt just a week
before shifted to the other end of the spectrum and turned into a deep
low.
Enlightened and unattached much? Still a long way to go, I’m
afraid… It actually took me several months to get out of that resistant
mode and feel like writing this blog article after that incident, which
is an indicator of how much easier it was to relate with the happy
ending story vs. the one that ended with loss and death.
But at this point in my life, I finally find myself inching closer to
acceptance and understanding in relation to the subject of death (or so I
hope)… My conclusion (other than the fact that acceptance of the good,
the bad and ugly in life is easier said than done) is this: Life keeps
trying to teach us balance. It’s about understanding both ends of the
spectrum. It’s about realizing that, much more often than we’d like to
admit, we are not in control of external circumstances; only how we
react to them. It’s about accepting that without death there’s no life,
and vice-versa. It’s about acknowledging, as the Kybalion’s Principle of
Polarity teaches, that good and bad, happy and sad, love and hate, etc,
aren’t so much opposites, as they are extreme ends of the same pole.
So
one day you save the life of a butterfly; another day you witness
another butterfly’s death, and come face to face with the fact that
there was nothing you could do. And it’s all part of life’s beautiful
dance. It’s as simple as that (or should be)... Being able to understand
and accept one of life’s most basic principles (or enjoying the
learning process) is the key to having a joyful and fulfilled existence.
© Gisele Marasca-Vargas; 04/30/2019
theragicenter.com
References:
THE BUTTERFLY CONNECTION - About Our Role In Others’ Lives
http://www.theragicenter.com/giseles-blog/the-butterfly-connection
The Kybalion - The Seven Hermetic Principles
http://www.kybalion.org/kybalion.php?chapter=II
