By Sophie May
Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.
— Dolly Parton. “Love Is Like a Butterfly.”
I’ve always loved butterflies (although I was afraid of them flapping near me when I was young) — the beauty, symmetry and even throughout my Mariah days (if you know, you know) 🦋
Throughout the hardest times of my life, butterflies have always appeared and taken me to a place of calm, most poignantly when my grandad was in hospital for the last time and there were two that just wouldn’t leave where I was sat 🤍
A butterfly tattoo later and they’ve become even more important. Whenever I’m struggling they appear. Not just that but when Bloomin’ Mindful hadn’t even reached social media, I got a message from a shop to say they wanted to stock my Butterfly watering stations (now the Bug Oasis) 🐝 🦋
That day I cried as it was the lifeline and boost of confidence I so needed! All of a sudden I felt my grandad with me and it was as if he was making the link and this was the idea that would stick and make me happy 🙏
You see, I’ve got something called Cyclothemia which is a type of bipolar. It’s one of my diagnoses but the one that causes me to struggle the most. Today was no exception.
Cyclothemia means you have short cycles where your moods can change from super happy, to the lowest of the lows and everything in between. It’s exhausting and something I’m getting used to since my diagnosis.
Today was one of those days, spiralling, overly anxious and triggered by anything that wasn’t going smoothly (plus an emergency vet trip). As I sat there in a kind of ADHD paralysis, trying to keep calm but letting out my anguish in the form of a crying session, I looked out at my front door and there she was ... a beautiful butterfly, flying around my handmade wreath ... right in front of the glass panel, as if she wanted me to see her 🤍 🦋
It was then that I thought of what butterflies meant to me and it gave me some comfort and a short burst of positivity to be able to think straight and compose myself 🙏
I believe I’ll always have this connection with butterflies and really the point of my post today is that you just need those little reminders to keep going and to pull you back to the positive side, even when you can’t see it yourself 🤍
About the Author
Sophie May is the founder of Bloomin’ Mindful, offering whimsical resin garden art to make the world safer for bees and butterflies, and to ease her mind. You’ll find Bloomin’ Mindful on Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok.
Photo by the author.
Comments
Post a Comment