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The
Butterfly
This
is a story about people, and life- and how we deal with our feelings: by Nancy
Hurley-Madison.
~~~
I
am a butterfly,
longing
to be free
You
are a caterpillar,
clinging
to the tree
You
are looking,
to
the left and to the right
I
am longing,
only
for flight.
~~~
A
person who is fearful builds a cocoon around the self; slowly the layers go on,
to protect from the hurt and from the pain in life.
Early on this person can still move about, and reach others, and accept
touching from others through the layers of protection, but after awhile -years
perhaps- the cocoon becomes tight and restrictive.
There is a huge wall of layers between this person and others.
This person can no longer reach out and touch others or be touched, but
they can still talk, so they use their humor and their words to do and say
everything for them. But something is missing and others can feel the huge
distance. The cocoon keeps this
person far from others. This person
then learns to use words as weapons to protect and they are trapped,
being
in the world,
yet
removed from it.
By
his or her own doing, in seeking to protect the self from fear and pain, the
person can no longer move to touch and feel the love expressions from another.
This person even gets used to living this way - it’s the only way he or
she knows.
Some
people who have built this cocoon start to realize that something is wrong: they
are not really able to share love with others, so they start to work at taking
off some of the old layers that hurt and restrict them.
But
when they do, it is so hard. Every little bit they remove is difficult and
painful because there is new movement inside the cocoon and these parts of this
person have not moved for so long. And,
as more of the burdensome cocoon falls away, there is less and less protections,
and this person has to deal with the new exposure - like one who takes a blanket
off and has to get used to the cold.
The
first feelings from the exposure and new emotions are the worst. And then, to
the surprise of the person who was so protected and wrapped up in the feeling
and new freedom of motion, start to feel good.
And even after a while they start to feel natural.
This
person then realizes that what has emerged from this old protection is a
beautiful new creation that can move freely about and can experience new things
unafraid. And this person can go
now to others and touch them.
As
with the caterpillar and the butterfly, not all people will choose to risk life
without their protective cocoon keeping them safe and unhurt.
They will choose to live their life wrapped tightly, using their words to
communicate with others, but never again feeling the warmth that comes through
someone else’s touch and in feeling their own emotions that were lost to
themselves. They will die in their
cocoon; living yes, but not experiencing all there is.
There
are others who will choose to work very hard to get those restrictive layers off
that hold them in. They know that this is not easy and that others will think
they are crazy to go out into LIFE without the protection.
But they have seen others shed their cocoon and have seen the depth of
emotions that is really under all of our cocoons.
And these people know that it is worth the initial pain of exposure of
their feelings and fears,
in
order to fly free,
in order to freely love.
My
dream is that you can…
~~~
Fly Free. ~~~
This
poem and article by
Nancy
Hurley-Madison.
For
contact information about this work, please email me and I will forward your
request or comment on to this author.
Article Added 5/22/07
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