La Mariposa

I learn a new word today. La mariposa...the butterfly.

I love butterflies. As a young boy i used to chase after them in Maxwell Hills with my aunties trying to catch them. We had this big butterfly nets left by the Brits when they came to stay at the rest house in Maxwell Hill. I would be shown how to fold a triangular shaped envelope with exercise book paper so that when they caught the butterflies we could put them in it. It was for our collection. Later these butterflies would be preserved and then pinned to photo frames and framed the walls of the rest house.

Later in life i would see the beauty of these butterflies not as something pretty to look at but also to appreciate the fragility of it's life. A butterfly has a very short lifespan (2 weeks in all i think) but it's transformation from cocoon to ugly caterpillar to a beautiful flying creature of the skies is nothing short of amazing. It's life may be short but nothing stops it from living life to the fullest. Being the prettiest it can be and flying free. Perhaps we too can take a lesson from this beauteous creature and be the best that we can be and live Life to the fullest, dance as if no one is watching, love as if there is no tomorrow and all that and all that...la di da.

BE all that you can BE and when you expire and BE fertiliser to the flowers, you can then truly lay claim, " I HAVE LIVED!"