Learning to Talk Butterfly
Learning to talk butterfly comes from a determination to move from where you are to where you want to be. It’s a new language that embraces hope and possibilities. Most importantly, butterfly talk must be mastered before you can fly.
What?
Exactly.
My mom gave me the book “Hope for the Flowers,” or more likely I took it and never gave it back because I fell in love with the message. But key to the story is that the butterflies couldn’t speek to the caterpillars because the caterpillars didn’t speak their language.
You can’t talk butterfly to caterpillar people.
I have a dream. When I explain my dream to people I often get comments like “Oh, you want to be like” or “You want to be the next” or something along those lines. Just as often I get a strange look followed by, ‘You’re not normal.” (Of course, I get that even when I’m in the grocery store so I’m used to that one) And of course, there is always the “you can’t do it that way” crowd.
A lot of people have a lot of opinions about what I am doing or should do or want to do.
But I don’t want to be the next anyone because I am me and there has never been one of those before. And I don’t want to be like anyone except me because that is who I’m designed to be (although I do want to be the very best me I can be).
And I truly believe I can live my BIG DREAM goals – I can imagine them so well that I can almost hold them. But between the doubters and the dismissers, I struggle some days to walk out my belief.
Does that mean I don’t really believe it?
On days like today, I wonder if I believe it enough to achieve it.
On other days, I encounter those people that dare to believe with me. They get excited about my dream and want to know how they can help me walk it out. They can see it as well as I can. By the time I finish with the encounter, I’m ready to fly.
These are my butterfly people. And when I talk to them, my belief runs strong. When I talk to the caterpillar people my belief encounters blockades I have to work over or work around.
On days like today, I need to embrace my butterflies.
Finding Butterflies
Butterflies take to the air – flying from bloom to bloom – helping stuff, making a difference, and delighting folks along the way. I suspect they are enjoying the journey as well. Have you ever seen a butterfly frowning?
If you are going to find butterflies, then you have to look up.
Go to where the butterflies gather
Visit groups, organizations, and feeds that are about growing, helping, serving, and encouraging.
Follow the examples of the butterflies
If you are going to move from being a caterpillar then you’ll have to do what the butterflies did to get their wings – which means building YOUR cocoon and then setting into the change and then breaking out. All three steps are required to fly!
Stick to the sky
Once you take to the sky, stick to the sky. Hang around butterflies. The more you hang around butterflies the less time you’ll have to hang around caterpillars and they can’t understand you anyway.
Do You Talk Butterfly
In the story, two caterpillars go about their lives until they begin to wonder what else there is to this journey. They look around and see two paths – butterflies that make noise at them but they can’t understand and a caterpillar pillar that all the other caterpillars climb.
Naturally, they go to the pillar because they can’t understand what the butterflies are trying to tell them. They stopped living and start striving.
Eventually, they discover the truth and they learn to talk butterfly.
- Do you believe you can fly?
Until you believe in your possibilities, you will not be positioned to achieve them. Until you believe them more than the people around you, you will struggle to harness the power of your belief so you can walk it out. Invest in believing.
- Do you really want to fly?
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you will. Without the will to get it done, you are left with the mist of missed dreams. Invest in purposeful actions.
- Do you want others to fly?
You aren’t designed to do it alone, and you can’t. Although you are the only one that can walk your path, we need each other to get there or to have the strength to take the steps that are required. Until you are ready to be invested in fueling the belief of others, you will find you struggle to have the fuel you need for your own flight.
We all need more butterflies in our life. And we need to be engaged in butterfly talk more now than ever before. The world demands we stay on the ground with the caterpillars. The caterpillars have no clue what we are talking about when we dare to dream. But butterflies are filled with hope, help, and happiness and they spread it wherever they go.
Learn to talk butterfly and then find others that will gladly share in conversation with you!
Listen to the #GrowingHOPE podcast
Click the play button below to listen to today’s episode on Growing Change – Remove the Mask. You have to be honest about where you are and who you are if you are going to create the change that gives live to your BIG DREAMS.
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When I think of the life of a caterpillar, I consider that if your entire life is designed around: eat all you can, take a long nap, wake up beautiful – that doesn’t sound like such a bad deal! On the other hand, that is probably more my reflection of snark, and why I love Snarky Rainbows! I love Kathryn’s messages and the way she presents them. Always good food for thought!
Thanks Tom!
Of course, the caterpillar only gets to take the nap if he builds the cocoon 😉