The journey to your soul can feel like a treasure hunt. Yet the treasure is not a shiny bauble at the end of a long trek, it is peace in your soul throughout this journey of life.
How can we even describe what is happening here? These are thoughts and ideas bigger and yet more intimate than words can do justice. And yet, I shall try.
I’ll take my clumsy and mostly-formed thoughts to try to describe this feeling I have been cultivating. I beg you to look past the awkward bits and try to feel it along with me.
It might be described like this:
To reach the wisdom of your soul is not so much a discovery, as an unfurling.
Your soul is unfurling throughout this life, possibly quietly, maybe riotously, definitely constantly.
While the path may not always be peaceful, your heart can be. Indeed I believe the goal of your soul is peace in your heart.
This is a journey that does not have a start and a finish and a set number of stops along the way.
This journey – this living peace – is everything we are here for.
But how do you grow peace in your heart?
There are many ways, indeed. Check into any spiritual practice and you’ll find a lot of rituals, a lot of ideas, to help get your soul to where it needs to be.
Many even agree that the place it needs to be is in peace.
There are lots of ways, yes, and my way is all about one thing:
Butterflies!
You know I believe they are a bright and playful spiritual practice.
Here’s how it works.
Imagine a butterfly has just arrived. Picture it float in over your left shoulder. Notice it as it hangs in the air before you.
Do you see the dappled blue of its broad wings?
Do you notice how it floats gently down to your screen with the slightest twitch of its outstretched wings?
Do you see it watching you, waiting for you to stop all that you are doing so you can really see it?
Think about the butterfly for a moment.
If you were able to see the butterfly I’m going to guess something.
You smiled.
Come on, you can admit it. The muscles in your face relaxed into a joyful, peaceful smile. You sunk into that feeling of wonder, that experience of beauty, and you smiled.
And if you stayed with this image a little longer, you probably felt your heart release a little. Like someone opened the lid and let the light shine forth. Like the door opened and in rushed peace and confidence and trust. All the things you needed right now.
This is how it feels to receive butterflies.
This is how it is to have peace in your heart.
Don’t worry that it may not last.
The only time your heart knows is now. Even one moment of peace is still peace in your heart.
You can have these butterflies – this peace – in your heart whenever you want.
Call upon them on your own. Join my Butterfly Rabble group to share the butterfly love. Or get 23 Whispers to receive the butterflies that came to me as I fell into the beauty of the 23 cards of the Gratitude Tarot’s major arcana.
I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments below. Did you see and feel the butterfly? Did you smile? Do you agree that this really is a spiritual practice?
Of course I smiled <3 This is the thing you do so well, simple spirituality with butterfly power. Even if I read posts for others, I can feel the energy surrounding me <3
Beautiful! I love butterflies and do find peace in them, though I’d never have thought of it that way. I do feel the stillness then worry it won’t last; but I love the way you describe it. Thank you for bringing me a moment of peace.
Friday I went on a field trip to the zoo with my kids and into their butterfly house. Everyone was smiling.
Such a lovely post–and absolutely NOTHING clumsy about it!!! I got lost in the moment with the butterfly. It reminds me of when it’s nice outside and I start going to do exercise in this huge field surrounded by mountains and trees…and I sometimes see the most amazing butterflies! I’ve seen brilliant blue ones that are so vibrant and vivid, it’s like they are of another dimension, and I do smile and get that feeling of peace in my heart, like my soul is sighing. Thank you for bringing this magic to us!
What a lovely mental image – I saw a really beautiful butterfly – thank you so much! What a lovely way to explain the journey of our soul in this lifetime. So simple and with such beauty. I shall be more than happy to join your Butterfly Rabble (brilliant name heehee!) on Facebook!
As a hypnotist I truly appreciate someone’s ability to create imagery with the written word. Very nicely done! I could see the butterfly and feel it’s energy and peace and love. So very cool. Thank you for this gift today. ♥
I am a big fan of your butterflies! Yes I did smile when I pictured it landing on my screen. It was a message to slow down and see the beauty instead of pushing forward, head down oblivious to what is around me.
To me that is part of my soul expanding- every time I notice beauty and move into the place of love and appreciation.
I love butterflies and their symbolism. When my paternal grandmother died, there were several floating around us at the cemetery and then exactly a year later one landed on my father. Last year I got my daughter a butterfly house and we watched them make their cocoons and then unfurl into peaceful, beautiful butterflies. Yes, that’s what the soul wants: peace.
Love the butterfly imagery…and of course, I smiled. And today started very frazzled, so the timing is just right. Am going to sit with the butterfly for a while today.
Reading this outside, in the gorgeous springtime of the North Georgia mountains, a REAL butterfly came to visit! Not blue, but brilliant yellow like the sun, with black edges. And it definitely made me smile. 🙂
So, here’s a question, though: if the goal of our soul is a peaceful heart, what gets our heart twisted into unrest in the first place?
absolutely loved it and smiled, great technique, I will be using it working with my clients when they feel overwhelmed. love the phrase “I believe the goal of your soul is peace in your heart”, it so true. thanks for this beautiful post.