Chasing Butterflies
Like a curious child full of hope and desire, I’m chasing butterflies.
I’ve thought about it so much that I feel that I’ve spent my entire life obsessing over it. I’ve had it, used it, lived within it and gone past it many, many times and yet, here I am today still in awe of it and desiring it. I see it in many lives and sometimes stare at it and wonder how I lost it. It’s evaded me on more occasions that I can count yet I’ve also taken it for granted when I’ve had it.
I’ve seen you with it and you probably don’t even realize you have it. If I were to tell you what it was, you’d probably laugh or argue that I was wrong and spend considerable time convinving me about how wrong I am. Yet, you’ve seen it too. Not just within your own family or your circle of friends and even occasionally at work, but within yourself.
This park I walked past was filled with children chasing butterflies and I watched them laugh and run, with eyes filled with wonder, they chased butterflies but actually had that one thing I was looking for. In their faces I could see they had it and in their stride I could see they had it and in their movements it was so glaringly obvious that they had it, while they ran after butterflies.
I’m not alone and never will be, because I have you in the world. You may not know me or talk to me or acknowledge me or even consider me, but that’s not important. What’s important is that once upon a time, as children, we were chasing butterflies together and we had that thing we both look for every single day.
You will never catch the butterfly no matter how fast you run, but you can easily attain the thing that I think most people want, even when they don’t realize it’s what they want.
I can guarrantee you that you hardly ever think about wanting it but yet I’ll prove to you that you want it so badly, so desperately that when you watch children chasing butterflies, you’ll want it too.
No, it isnt a butterfly net, nor is it pigtails or braces or freckles. It’s not laughter, though it can certainly lead you to it. It’s not smiling, though that too can lead you to it. In fact, if you were to laugh and smile more, you’d probably find it. If you smile right now, even if it’s fake, you’ll make yourself that little tiny bit closer to it.
Happiness. A long time ago, we all had it, we all took it for granted and we all saw it in abundance in our world, yet in this modern age, we are too busy and too preoccupied to realize we no longer have it.
Next time you see children chasing butterflies, stop and watch them and remember, what it was to be truly happy and not to care about all the things you care so much about right now that leaves you wondering, what ever happened to happiness.