And Easter came (and went) like a butterfly

This one I wrote around Easter when we didn’t know quite was expecting was just around the corner. And who would’ve thought that it’d still propose a good reflection for what we are going through?

Easter came and went. How are you feeling? I think I need someone to talk to, just like you. Being like this, without meeting our friends, colleagues, strangers on the street — it really makes you wanna chat.

So I decided to tell you about what I’m thinking right now, where ideas of anxiety, anguish, and fear might even help bring about a more positive outlook of what we’re going through.

I stood in my garden for hours, watching a butterfly. Many, many hours. And then five more butterflies showed up, and they flew around really close to one another. I got thinking… They like being together. Do they live in flocks or alone? How long does a butterfly live?

There are 160.000 types of butterflies, and I met three different kinds in my backyard. I found out they live really short lives — most of them live up to four weeks, between procreation, cocoon, and flight.

We can say that they live for a period of lent or a kind of social isolation inside their cocoons, getting to know themselves and building their wings. And can you believe some only live for 24 hours?

So, I thought. That must be why they fly together, take amazing dives between the flowers flapping their wings together, and socializing with each other. They have fun in this fraction of their lives when they’re free and outside their cocoons.

What about us, humans? We are in a sort of cocoon right now. And this can bring about a bit of anxiety in us. We are gifted with highly complex brains and are inserted in a highly complex social structure, as well.

We were created, educated, to think that the external environment is what gives us opportunities. Of putting our destiny in the hands of the market, our boss, our parents, our school, a geographical region, the economy, the lottery, or even the universe. And we’re not ready to understand that changing is a process that happens from inside out.

A sizable body of research that explores the nature of consciousness shows that thoughts are capable of affecting everything, even the most simple machines to the most complex of living beings.

This evidence suggests that the human thoughts and our intentions are a physical and chemical manifestation that has an amazing power to change everyone’s lives. Each thought we have is tangible energy and holds in itself the power to transform. A thought is not only some stuff — it’s a stuff that can influence other stuff.

One of the opportunities you have right now is to be able to live like a butterfly. A day full of emotions and new things that you can find in everything you do, no matter where you are. I’m sure hope this will bring your anxiety levels down.

Be a butterfly in your cocoon.