A Butterfly Flutters By
A Year of Noticing - Day 299
Some days beauty comes in the most mundane tasks, and even the tasks we’ve been avoiding or dreading!
This afternoon, I took out the bag of garbage that had been sitting by the back door for a few days. On my kids “chore chart”, they can earn bonus money for noticing and completing tasks without being asked - like taking out the garbage and recycling before either a reminder, or losing the opportunity to earn some cash completely when I take it out.
Even I completed the task a bit begrudgingly, though the bag weight nearly nothing, somehow it felt much heavier as I walked down the back steps, through the yard and past the garage, opened the large garbage bin and tossed the bag to the bottom. Relieved that the task was finally complete, I felt a little lighter on the steps back to the house, and that’s when I noticed it…
… there was a flash of something fluttering in the dill!
I came to a full stop to watch and see what it was. I haven’t seen many butterflies in the past month or two, so this on caught my attention as it seemed to be playfully diving and soaring, coming close to the plants but not landing for longer than a millisecond. I slowly pulled out my phone to try to capture a picture and figure out which species this was (it seemed like a swallowtail with its bit of bright blue and yellow on the back and the two little tails that it had at the bottom of each wing.
Soaring and floating, in front and behind me, this swallowtail butterfly playfully and delicately flew all around. I desperately wanted it to stop, to land, so I could get a closer look.
Fortunately, this beautiful butterfly continued its own path and journey, and did what a butterfly does best — fly!
I let go of my wishes and hopes, and basked in the wonder of it’s flight. A combination of darting, flapping with great vigour, and floating peacefully… reminding me of the balance of doing and being, action and rest, and this swallowtail butterfly embodied it beautifully.
My human self thought it might be having difficulty finding a place to land and rest, however, perhaps it had moments of rest with each moment of floating before fluttering to higher heights.
I enjoyed a few moments of pause and rest, enjoying the beauty, joy and playfulness of the butterfly before it flew around the cedar trees and out of sight. Even after it flew out of sight, the awe and wonder remained floating and fluttering within me.
xo
You will find all the previous posts in A Year of Noticing right HERE.