Leaving an office building the other
day, I saw a beautiful blue butterfly on the crack of the sidewalk.
I stopped, looking down to watch it while I considered whether or not
to try to move it from the path of the heavy foot traffic.
At that time, a man was walking toward
the building and saw me looking at the ground. He stopped and
watched, noting that it didn't try to move away when we walked close
to it. It didn't appear to be damaged – the wings were intact and
were softly fluttering. After a moment, the man reached down and
gently collected the butterfly on his fingertips and moved it to a
nearby flowering bush.
We congratulated ourselves on our good
deed and started to walk away. Just then, the butterfly rose from
the safety of the bush and flew right back to the sidewalk, landing
on the exact crack in the middle of the foot traffic where it
started. We laughed, saying “I guess that's where he wanted to be”
and walked away. What else could we do?
As I continued to my car and drove
away, I wondered if he'd be okay. I hoped he'd fly to a safer spot
to sun himself out of harm's way. Sitting in traffic, with time to
ponder such things, I couldn't help but to think about all of the
human rescues we attempt in life only to learn that the person wanted
to be right there in the place that we can see is not safe or
prudent.
When we see a situation from the
outside and from a distance, it's easy to see how things could go
wrong or end badly. But when you're the creature who thinks that
taking a rest in the sunshine is a great idea, the possibility that
things could go wrong is the farthest thing from your mind.
When I returned to the building, I
naturally scanned the sidewalk and there was no sign of the beautiful
blue butterfly. There was no evidence that he'd been hurt so I
suppose he flew away when he was ready to do so. I don't understand
why he lingered, but I have to assume that his reasons were clear and
important to him.
I wonder how many times we assign
ourselves the role of rescuer without considering whether a person –
or butterfly, for that matter – is right where they want to be?
Whether they realize possible dangers or not, there's a very real
possibility that they choose to be where they are for a reason.
Maybe it's not obvious from a logical standpoint and we may never
understand it but sometimes we have to walk away, wishing them well
and hope for the best.
Looking back at my own life, I can see
plenty of times on the sidewalk crack while others tried to move me
to safety and I went right back. In most of those moments, I knew
why I was there and what I was waiting for. On the other side of it,
I can see that, to people looking on, it wasn't obvious why I put
myself in that position but I knew why I was there and did what I
meant to do there.
Moving forward, I'm not going to
pretend I won't move a butterfly or try to protect people from what I
feel may be dangerous, but I do I hope that I'll try to tread lightly
in my interference and take a beat to think about my perception
versus their reality. I'll consider this my own version the
Butterfly Effect, I guess. Thinking about that butterfly definitely
affected my point of view.
