THE BUTTERFLY IN ME
To everything there is a season, and
a time to every purpose under the heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1
As a child, I was very busy, why and how were
my favorite words. I was constantly changing myself into
my new character for the day or week. Pretend was my choice
of games. Always a rapidly moving little being. One day my
Grandmother said to my Mother, This
child has an over active imagination and is never still except
when she is asleep.
My Mother replied, Don't be concerned
Mama, It is just the Butterfly in Her. This story was
related to me during the time of mourning for my Mother.
It brought a smile to my lips, and found a resting place
in my heart.
Each of us is familiar with the metamorphosis. The process
from worm to Butterfly.
I would like to use this today as a metaphor possible
in life. The change from ignorance to knowledge,
from living of the world to living in the world. The awakening of the divine
within, recognizing there are no limits to the peace and joy available
to you.
In an interview in 1960, Salvador Dali stated the following about a collection
of cards he had painted, If you will study the entire
series of cards, you will find one theme runs through almost all - the
butterfly. The Butterfly is not present only because it is in itself a
thing of beauty. It is present because to one of the greatest Spanish mystics,
St. Theresa of Avila, the butterfly was the symbol of the soul.
The ugly, ungainly caterpillar, our body, enters a form of the grave, the
cocoon. Out of this death
emerges the butterfly-beautiful, free, no longer earthbound. To me, as
to St. Theresa, the butterfly is the "soul of man.
To make this change in yourself you must go to the depth
of mind where the causes of your personal condition exists.
Here let go of the limitations, the weaknesses and the shortcomings
of your personal self as well as your superficial opinions
of yourself, enter mentally into the greatness, the grandeur,
the splendor of all things. Here you will enter the richness
of real life, you will seek to gain a larger understanding of the majesty
and marvellousness of all life, and aspire to think the thoughts of the
infinite.
It is here also you must recognize that Spirit ( God) is the ONE and
ONLY reality of the universe. It is one thing to recognize this: it is
quite another to realize it. This realization is a process.
This brings to memory another story related to me.
A man and his wife looking out their window one day noticed
a cocoon on a limb. They waited with anticipation, checking
each day for a change.
One day they noticed the Butterfly was busy tearing away the cocoon,
this went on for several days,
they began to feel sorry for the butterfly, seemingly having a difficult
time freeing itself and decided to
help. They finished tearing away the cocoon. The butterfly fell to
the ground and died — you see the
butterfly needed to complete the process of freeing itself, which would
have made its wings strong enough for it to fly.
Consciousness or awareness germinates with recognition,
but bears it fruit in realization, he who has realized has
attained. Who are the benefactors of this realization among
mankind? Inventors,discoverers, pathfinders, sages, historians
are some. But by far the greatest is one who lifts to higher
planes the consciousness of their fellow man. Hence we perceive
the reason for the supreme place of
Jesus Christ in history. He is the creator of humanity's truth,
the Wayshower. So as we slowly tear our
souls free from the cocoon of fear, pain and other wrong states of
mind, we strengthen our wings and
emerge the beautiful, whole and free Butterfly we were meant to be.
Yes, everytime I see a butterfly, I stop and remember the
little story my grandmother told me, and I give thanks
to God for the wonder of each day of discovery, as I travel
this journey of life, for each lesson of life tears away
another piece of the cocoon and I am joyfully closer to
flying with my beautiful wings.
Blessings,
Rev. Paulette
