I never really truly believed in symbols even though I had a very Scottish upbringing on all things mythical and magical, which I must say I’m very grateful for (great for the imagination) the tales and believing is being lost these days. But when my mother suddenly passed, something changed. We were raised to believe that butterflies was someone you loved visit you. Her passing was just a few days before my brother and I birthday in April 2020. On my birthday of the April the year following I was walking my dog before work and a kaleidoscope of butterflies swarmed me, I live in Dubai so this isn’t a normal thing. I was so emotionally over come with happiness and sadness all at the same time, so weird to explain. To this day when I see a butterfly I just say hi Mum and smile. The world works in mysterious ways.
I’ve been having similar conversations with myself recently. I’m pretty cynical and overall I don’t think magical thinking is always great for your mental health, either. But why can’t I just let some nice ‘coincidence’ take on a bit more meaning? What do I know about how the universe works?
Gosh I love this. Like you, I can’t help but believe this is a symbol for something. I’ve never been a huge believer in any of that stuff until my grandmother died in August 2020 (my first ‘big’ loss) and on my grandfather’s birthday just three weeks later we sat outside on a relatively breezy day, and one birthday cake candle just refused to go out. After that I’ve found comfort in strange coincidences like this.
I never really truly believed in symbols even though I had a very Scottish upbringing on all things mythical and magical, which I must say I’m very grateful for (great for the imagination) the tales and believing is being lost these days. But when my mother suddenly passed, something changed. We were raised to believe that butterflies was someone you loved visit you. Her passing was just a few days before my brother and I birthday in April 2020. On my birthday of the April the year following I was walking my dog before work and a kaleidoscope of butterflies swarmed me, I live in Dubai so this isn’t a normal thing. I was so emotionally over come with happiness and sadness all at the same time, so weird to explain. To this day when I see a butterfly I just say hi Mum and smile. The world works in mysterious ways.
I’ve been having similar conversations with myself recently. I’m pretty cynical and overall I don’t think magical thinking is always great for your mental health, either. But why can’t I just let some nice ‘coincidence’ take on a bit more meaning? What do I know about how the universe works?
Gosh I love this. Like you, I can’t help but believe this is a symbol for something. I’ve never been a huge believer in any of that stuff until my grandmother died in August 2020 (my first ‘big’ loss) and on my grandfather’s birthday just three weeks later we sat outside on a relatively breezy day, and one birthday cake candle just refused to go out. After that I’ve found comfort in strange coincidences like this.