What’s the deal with butterflies?

When my oldest son was about two years old, we were inside watching Sesame Street together. It was a show about butterflies, and he suddenly turned to me and said the word butterfly for the first time - his first three-syllable word! 

I was in Seminary and learning Hebrew at the time, and I knew how hard it was to learn a new language. So, to hear my first child say his first big word was… thrilling. 

It felt big.

Then as we often did, we put on our coats to go outside to play in the yard. And I kid you not, when we stepped out onto our front stoop, there in my flower pot, opening her wings for the first time, was a butterfly who had mere seconds before emerged from her chrysalis. She was just hanging out, feeling her wings, as if stretching before getting out of bed. My son and I watched in wonder as she took her time crawling off the plant and onto the brick wall of our house, up and up, until she reached the gutter at the second story and then, just like that, she took off. Out into the world, on her very first flight. 

I almost couldn’t believe it.  

Those two events back to back felt HUGE.

I felt awe.  I think my son felt it too. The experience left me feeling more connected than ever to my own spirit, my son’s spirit, and the spirit of the universe - the “more than meets the eye,” the divine, the holy – whatever you may name it. 

And it also made me fascinated with butterflies – the stories they tell us, the lessons they teach us. About transformation. And awe. About taking flight. About finding the way together, in community. (Did you know that butterflies in a group are often referred to as a kaleidoscope. I love that!) 

Monarch butterflies, in particular, have grabbed my imagination.  Every year, millions of these delicate little creatures migrate from the U.S. and Canada to Southern California and Mexico, nearly 2,500 miles! But here’s the wild thing:  it takes five generations of Monarchs to make the whole journey. Each one typically lives only 3-6 weeks. So if you’re born in the middle of the journey, how do you know which way to fly? 

We don’t have all the answers yet, but what citizen science volunteers all across the continent have helped us learn so far is that every butterfly has it within themselves to know the way. 

They use their senses, their intuition, something in their DNA, to find oases of rest along the journey. They even land on the same trees as their ancestors. Something within their deepest selves knows the way to find home, and knows how to find community along the way. And get this, the last generation? The one that completes the journey? They can live up to 9 months! 

So that’s why you see a butterfly in our Imagine Cincinnati logo. And a few flitting around on our website as well. 

To remind us that, yes, our children are meant to soar. But also that they need an oasis. And that’s what we try to do around here -  be that safe space to land, gather the community and offer places of rest, wisdom and direction on the journey. For our generation. And the next and the next and the next.  

If you’d like to experience that bit of oasis on your journey, check out our events schedule or our Instagram page and come join us sometime.