It started with an Instagram post. A little girl with outstretched arms showed off a cute pair of butterfly wings and the whimsy of it was so perfect. I have a niece who is 6 and a very important half. I love her dearly and enjoy doing auntie dates with her so when I saw those colorful wings I figured I could find a way to make a pair.
Sitting at the kitchen table I found myself with a piece of fabric 5 inches from my face and a fat black marker in my hand as I drew lines into patterns. Note to self: read the marker first. After a few moments of concentration I looked up and read the marker “Vapors Harmful.” There was something so wonderful though about creating those wings. I thought about how fun it would be to let my La la fill them in with bright colors.
When the day of our date came around we sat at the kitchen table and colored. She did it almost completely by herself and I just offered suggestions when she asked. Sometimes you need to make butterfly wings and let your niece color them in so that she knows you’ll always be here to help her learn how to fly.
I love the idea of wings. We all need something that makes us soar. Maybe your words will be someone’s wings. Butterflies were first caterpillars. Caterpillars are slow and really just look like worms. If you didn’t already know you might not guess that those worms morph into something beautiful. What if we remembered that a little more with the people around us? What if we could draw out the beauty in a person with our words? What if we could say over them words that would make them spread their wings and make the world a better place because we showed them that their true self wasn’t the caterpillar but the butterfly?
Our words can either make people crawl or make them fly. That doesn’t mean that words always have to be easy and I’m not talking about flattery. The caterpillar has to go through some serious struggle to become a butterfly but our words should be helpful.
Words are free. Encouraging someone or saying something that draws out the beauty of their soul doesn’t cost you anything. Can you give one person wings today? Can you make one person “fly”? It doesn’t even take pixie dust!
Love this! I was just playing with my nephew and niece the other night – my nephew said he was a caterpillar so I grabbed him and told him I was the cocoon. 🙂 Then my niece joined in. She’d leave pretending to be a butterfly but my nephew would scoot away, still a caterpillar. Maybe that could add another dimension to the illustration – the cocoon can provide the right conditions for change, but it’s the caterpillar that has to do the changing inside – so our words might not always seem effective at helping, at least not right away, but it’s because the recipient has to allow themselves to be transformed. Or maybe it’s just that nephews would rather be robots than butterflies. 🙂
What a beautiful story! Thanks for adding that to the conversation! 🙂