The butterflies

I have 19 tattoos total, but this one holds a place in my heart because, to me, butterflies changed the way I seen the world. It was June 14th, 2019 and my husband at the time had begged me to take a day off of work for us to go fishing as a “date” without our children since we hadn’t spent any quality time together in a while. I agreed, took the day off and around 12:00pm we left our kids with their grandparents for our fishing date. To my knowledge he meant well and everything was fine and it was a normal date to me.. fast forward to us getting there and as soon as I stepped out of the car an orange and black butterfly flew to me and landed on my hand. I was excited because that rarely happens, but then it stayed. It would not get off of me no matter how many times I put it down. First it was my hand, then my foot, then my shoulder. (Mind you I was wearing no perfume, wasn’t sweating yet because I had just got out of air conditioned car, and was clean) Even as I casted my pole over and over it stayed on shoulder and refused to let my husband touch it. Then came a black and blue butterfly, and another. All 3 staying on me and coming back to me. None wanted near him. I thought the entire situation was off because that had never happened to me, and my husband barely spoke to me and didn’t even fish. So he huffed and puffed, I put the butterflies down and we left and went to another spot a few miles down the road. As soon as I get there, another butterfly comes to me, same occurrence in a completely different spot. He gets angry and decides he wants to leave. I knew something was off with him, but the butterflies have me such a feeling of warmth I can’t explain. Maybe it was just cool to me, I don’t know, but I felt protected. Silly I know. We get back to my parents’ house to pick up the kids and as soon as I step on their porch, nowhere near the fishing spots, a black and blue butterfly lands on my foot and stays. Shortly after that, my husband said I needed to take the kids home because he wanted to go fishing again, after we just went and he didn’t even fish! So I knew then he was going to see someone else. Two days later was Fathers Day that year, I made him breakfast among other things he requested and shortly after he told me he didn’t love me anymore and left me. I found out he did cheat on me the day we went fishing two days prior, and that is when our relationship of 8 years ended. The cruelty that followed only solidified the feeling to me that those butterflies were either trying to tell me something or giving me a sense of protection knowing the evil I was standing next to. Maybe they just liked me or the way I smelled, who knows. But I find comfort in that, and I always will.