Love and
Light,
Serenity
True Story of Courage and
Love
Walking down a path through
some woods in Georgia, I saw a water puddle
ahead of me. I angled my
direction to go around it, on the side of the
path that wasn't covered by water and mud. As I reached the puddle, I
was
suddenly attacked! Yet I did nothing, for the attack was so
unpredictable
and from a source so totally unexpected. I was startled
as
well as unhurt, despite having been struck four or five times already.
I
backed up a foot and my attacker stopped attacking me. Instead
of
attacking more, he hovered in the air on graceful butterfly wings
in
front of me. Had I been hurt I wouldn't have found it amusing, but I
was
unhurt, it was funny, and I was laughing. After all,
I was being
attacked by a butterfly!
Having stopped laughing,
I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me
again. He
rammed me in the chest with his head and body, striking me
over and over
again with all his might, still to no avail. For a second
time, I
retreated a step while my attacker relented in his attack. Yet
again, I tried
moving forward. My attacker charged me again. I was
rammed in the chest over
and over again. I wasn't sure what to do, other
than to
retreat a third time. After all, it's just not everyday that one
is attacked
by a butterfly. This time, though, I stepped back several
paces to look the
situation over. My attacker moved back as well to land
on the ground.
That's when I discovered why my attacker was charging
me
only moments earlier. He had a mate and she was dying. She was
beside
the puddle where he landed.
Sitting close
beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan
her. I could
only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his
concern for his
mate. He had taken it upon himself to attack me for
his
mate's sake, even though she was clearly dying, and I was so
large. He
did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life,
should
I have been careless enough to step on her. Now I knew why and what
he
was fighting for. There was really only one option
left for me. I
carefully made my way around the puddle to the other side of
the path,
though it was only inches wide and extremely muddy. His
courage in
attacking something thousands of times
larger and heavier than himself
just for his mate's safety justified it. I
couldn't do anything other
than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the puddle. He
had truly earned those
moments to be with her, undisturbed.
I left them in peace for
those last few moments, cleaning the mud from
my boots
when I later reached my car.
Since then, I've always tried to remember the courage of that butterfly
whenever I see
huge obstacles facing me. I use that butterfly's courage
as an
inspiration and to remind myself that good things are
worth
fighting for.
"Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the
fragile
blossom that opens in the snow."
this story by
David L. Kuzminski, © copyrighted
