The Parable of the Butterfly
Fiction
Note - I have changed the main character’s name from Magnus to Eddy for two reasons. First a reader suggested it and it is a good suggestion. Second, I have a reflection drafted on this same topic and in that piece I had already used the phrase “eddy in the wind,” and that other piece will be linking to this one.
Thank you to from the for publishing the following parable in the excellent Soaring Twenties publication here. I’m honored to have penned the first parable piece which has been published in his prestigious publication where our members prattle, preach, persuade and prognosticate typically with poetry, polemics, or painting. Alliteration aside, I’m republishing it here for my subscribers.
Eddy the butterfly had a goal. It was time to find a mate. And he had heard there were pretty female butterflies to the northeast. So he decided to fly that way. Goals are important, he nodded to himself. So, he flew and flew and flew, but he didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Unfortunately, Eddy faced a fierce headwind blowing from the northeast, and the harder he flapped his wings, the faster he exhausted himself. Finally, unable to continue, he decided to land and rest. He had been trying for days to achieve his goal, and boy Eddy was mad! He had to fly to the northeast to meet a girl butterfly. Goals! Why did the whole world seem against him?
The next morning, after he woke up refreshed, he diligently checked his todo list. It read, “Fly northeast. Meet girl butterfly.” So he sighed, and took flight. Sure enough, he immediately started struggling against the punishing headwind. So he flapped his wings harder than ever! Huffing and puffing and flapping, he suddenly noticed something up ahead. What was that? It was another butterfly! He watched as it soared high, hardly flapping its wings at all, calmly gliding to the southwest. And what was that beautiful sound? He heard a beautiful female butterfly voice floating to him on the wind. She was singing in glee!
What was wrong with her? She was going the wrong way!
“Ma’am! He yelled as loud as she could. Turn around, you're going the wrong way!”
“What’s that you say?” She responded, “You say you're going the wrong way?”
“No Ma'am, I said your going the wrong way!”
“Me?” she chuckled, her laugh sending shivers of delight down his body that continued to the tips of his wings. She continued, “How can I be going the wrong way? I’m always right where I’m supposed to be. Right Now!”
She did a loop-the-loop and continued to glide easily on the wind.
“What’s your name?” Eddy yelled.
“Flo!”
“But, Flo, how do you know you're going the right way? We have to go northeast.” Eddy yelled back, puzzled.
“I must be flying the right way, because I’m going with the flow! Life knows where it wants me to go!” Flo giggled.
“Well, I’m flying northeast, that’s my goal.” Eddy said determinedly.
“How's that workin’ out for you, hon?” Flo responded coyly.
Hon? She called me hon!
“Why don’t you try going my way for a while? Cutie pie,” Flo called out and winked at him.
“I would love to Flo, but I have to go to the northeast and meet a girl butterfly, that’s my goal,” Eddy responded.
“Meet a girl butterfly you say? You seem to have already met one, haven’t you?”
Eddy’s eyes widened and right there and then he abandoned his todo list, and stopped thinking about it. His worries melted away, and he turned around, closed his eyes, and stopped flapping his wings.
And as the calm breeze carried him, next to his new friend, Flo, the girl butterfly, they sailed together toward the southwest caressed by the blessing of the wind, warmed by the blessing of the sun high above, and in ecstatic rapture with this eternal moment in which they found themselves with one another.
Love the painting that went with it.
Great read with lovely message. Thank you!