To A Butterfly (2), by William Wordsworth
Meditation
It’s spring. Two words are enough. Simplicity. One word only. Wordsworth is worth a thousand words. “What joy awaits you, when the breeze/ Hath found you out among the trees,/ And calls you forth again!?” What would it mean to watch a butterfly “now a full half-hour”? Do we have the patience, the attentiveness, to see what is before us in all its simplicity…and to perceive in simplicity the marvelous complexity of Being? Attention is a kind of sanctuary, for the butterfly and the observer alike. To recover the motionless motion of the butterfly is to be re-immersed in the childlike experience of elongated time.
On what simple things might we be attentive today? What permission will we give ourselves to linger “a full half-hour” on the delicacies of creation? Can we provide a sanctuary for others to rest their weary wings, even as they ride upon the breeze that calls us all forth again? Be self-poised, like the butterfly of spring.
Todd Breyfogle, Denver, Colorado
