Maybe you’ll find one or two to hang onto.
Have you ever been to a butterfly pavilion? I went to the one in Scottsdale, Arizona, years ago. It was just after I’d left a long relationship and the farm where I’d been living for six years. I was full of feelings of transformation, new beginnings, and freedom. I wandered around the pavilion among the gorgeous fluttering butterflies for a couple of hours and thought about what I wanted to do next.
For a while I sat on a bench and watched the other people interacting with the butterflies. Several times, I saw a person approach a big, resplendent beauty and put out their hand, or slowly edge closer to one that was fluttering around. The person was obviously hoping the lovely creature would hop onto their hand or land on their shoulder.
In a couple of cases, the person who was so hopeful, and trying so hard to get the attention of the butterfly, didn’t realize that there was already a beautiful butterfly sitting quietly on top of their head.
Hope is a double-edged sword. Often hope leads people to try so hard, to strive after things painfully — or to wait endlessly, holding onto the hope of something happening or changing. I’ve…
