A Real Butterfly Journey

It was jet another day in the life of Layla. She hated the circumstances she worked in, but dragged herself to work, day after day. As this was her life. She had to financially contribute to maintaining their household.

She couldn’t wait for her daily lunchtimes, as it was a short break that she could escape her circumstances. This day wasn’t any different. On her way back to work, she remembered something that she had to bought and forgot about. She ran to get it…

She knew that she was going to be in trouble when getting back at work, as she is late already.

Then, in her rush, a misunderstanding, chaos, people… Did it happen? Everything happened so suddenly, it is al vague to her. Unreal.

When back at work a day later. Everyone was staring at her and was talking behind her back. She is a very sensitive person and always tries to help others wherever she goes. This wasn’t something that she wished upon her worst enemy. Things started to get unbearable. No one even bothered to ask her, her side of the story.

Her husband Waldo, and she decided that it would be better if she resigned and look for another opportunity. Twenty-five years of optimal utilizing her left brain. She was good at what she was doing. She resigned but unfortunately couldn’t get hold of another opportunity.

This was killing her. Knowing that she cannot contribute her part of the finances anymore.

Waldo saw his once enthusiastic and lively wife, became more depressed by the day. He felt the deepest empathy for her but wasn’t able to do anything about her circumstances. He told her to rather take a break for a while and doing something that she loves.

True to her nature, she couldn’t sit around enjoying herself, and not doing anything. She started to become their domestic worker, the gardener. In the evenings she would study the things she loves. Loving everything she tried. She became good at everything as well.

Two years passed. One day someone asked her how things were going? Waldo was with her and answered, that he thinks that she was at her best place ever since he met her. Layla didn’t realize this, as it happened progressively over time.

She sat and force herself to reflect on the last two years. She was still stuck at worrying about the fact that she doesn’t contribute financially. This was stealing such a huge part of her life, that she didn't realize how she had grown.

She realized that despite everything, she and Waldo grew closer together during this time. She had more time to prepare delicious meals. Create a romantic atmosphere for when he comes home from work. She spent some quality time with him in the evenings and during the mornings before he had to go to work, as she didn’t have to rush.

She qualified herself in four new fields. All utilizing her right brain, for which she has a natural aptitude. She still studies and practices what she is learning, as she enjoys it so much.

She started sharing some of the things that carried her through her recovering process. By occasion, she heard that she touched someone’s life or thinking, by something she said.

She decided that it was important to her, to start new if she wanted to re-invent herself. You cannot do that with any baggage.

She started with a cleansing exercise. She identified anything and everything that was stealing her joy. She had to make peace with the fact that these things are real and did happen. She figured out the lessons that she had to learn from everything. In the final stage, the most important part was to forgive herself and others that were involved. This exercise took a while. She wrote everything on a physical piece of paper. Afterward, she burned it, as a symbol of final closure. After doing that, she felt great relief, because she got rid of all her baggage. Of anything and everything that could stand in her way of moving forward and of any achievement.

She came across meditation and started to make that a daily morning routine. First prepared a special space for her to be quiet and not disturbed by anyone or anything. She prepared it with things she likes. Candles, incense sticks/aroma burner. She built her own ‘paradise island’ to where she escapes and drew pictures in the sand’.

Some stretching beforehand, to get the blood flowing. Reading her daily devotion. Be still and let it sink in and be open to any thoughts that arise from it. Praying. Be still again, but this time escaping to her ‘paradise island’ with it’s things that have special meaning to her. 

She felt so much comfort after such a session, that she started to ‘wander off’ the same route when cleaning the house or washing the dishes. Many a bright idea or thought came to her then as well.

The final turn in her life, came when she discovered mindfulness. She made it a conscious decision to practice it each day. It became part of her and is an amazing lifestyle now. Living in the present, living every moment for what it is. Good or bad. She gives her everything for that moment. She doesn’t have preconceived expectations, because that is the root of disappointment.

If you start to allow yourself to become aware of different perceptions, your interactions, your thoughts, your feelings, the way that you perceive the world around you. We start discovering hidden things about ourselves.

By living mindfully, you achieve a consistent state of conscious awareness in which internal peace is created and thus enable accurate awareness of the context and content of the information we perceive.

Each moment you experience, no matter your activity. Express gratitude, which not only enriches your experience but makes you a nicer person.

You need to practice stillness. Be at peace within yourself each day, enjoy the silence and notice what is happening inside.

When you are becoming aware of the thoughts that are passing through your mind, you can begin to recognize those things that are bad for you. You can let go of the negative and allow your good thoughts to thrive.

You will unconsciously start living your life with a brilliance of ‘bounce-back-ability’ (“the capability/ability to recover quickly from a setback”)

One last very important thing to her was to create a meaningful mission statement for her life.

How would you want to remember? What do you want to be written on your tombstone?

She still doesn’t have a job. Still not generating some income with all her newfound knowledge. But she handles her circumstances much better. She chose to not be getting down by life.

She believes that one day when the time is right, things will go better again. Till then she will do her utmost best. You cannot be of any worth to someone else if you are burned out of unnecessary worrying all the time.

“Happiness is just like a butterfly; it comes and rests quietly on your shoulder when you least expect it.”

“Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over, she began to fly.”

“Caring is Sharing”