The other day a butterfly crossed my path and I nearly fainted.

Some people revere dragonflies.  Others look for crows or cardinals.  Whatever your spirit creature, whatever you take as a portent of good or an omen of evil, when the creature flits by your window, you take notice.

For me, it’s butterflies.  I have a checkered history with butterflies.  Someone presented me with a garnet pin in the shape of a butterfly and I scrunched my face.  Who wears bugs, I whined.   The giver recoiled.  The principle attribute which drew the giver had been the deep hue of the stones.  Knowing that I had several pieces of garnet in my meager collection, he had thought the bauble would please me.

The moment passed but I felt some remorse at not showing instant gratitude for the pretty thing.  Therefore I began to wear it often.  I came to cherish the potential of rebirth that a butterfly signifies, and soon the brooch became my favorite piece.  Now I place great value on the jewel and on butterflies in general, though I can never erase my initial callousness.

I’ve written about my evolution over the last three years.  I’ve boasted that I’m changing without anything more than the mild conviction which propelled my fingers across the laptop’s keys.  But now I feel an inner peace.  I expect this sense of change to deepen.

Yesterday I showed my secretary-friend Miranda the initial 3-D model of the tiny house which I am having built and to which I will eventually move.  She reacted with more shock than I anticipated.  It’s really real! she gasped.  Well, yes.  The chrysalis finally starts to yield.  I don’t know what will unfold but I expect to fly.

It’s the twelfth day of the forty-first month of My Year Without Complaining.  Life continues.

Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince