Butterfly Blessing

The day I met the Cinnabar Butterfly was an extraordinary summers day in North Yorkshire. After being couped up for too long with the COVID-19 lockdown, I decided to walk the 20 minutes or so to one of my local parks. At this stage in the lockdown people were only just allowed to have unlimited exercise time so I planned to spend the whole day there and make the most of the glorious weather. I also knew I needed to reconnect with nature in a big way. City dwelling is great for convenience and the modern lifestyle but for me there is nothing more fulfilling than walking barefoot in grass and hugging a tree. That was my mission for the day – I had nothing else to do and nowhere else to be.

The park I decided to visit that day is called Lister Park in Bradford. It is big enough and diverse enough that although it was only 20 minutes from the city, it was a place to go for an adventure as well as connect with nature. Lister Park is paradise on any day but the most wonderful thing about lockdown (for me) was the lack of people in the park when I arrived. I was there early and wandered around like it was my own personal paradise, hardly anyone else was there. I walked barefoot amongst the trees, sat under the shade of big trees branches, touched plants, smelt flowers, and marvelled at the birds (there were flocks of geese and ducks everywhere), watched the squirrels play, and then the best blessing of all, I saw a butterfly.

Butterflies flutter around in a haphazard fashion and often as soon as you see them, they are gone. On this day I was lucky, I saw it flying around the leaves above me and watched it, my head bobbing around trying to keep up with its zig zag path. I was sitting up against a tree trunk, shading myself from the midday sun, and stood up slowly to get a closer look. The butterfly took rest on a leaf (the one you see in the picture) and allowed me to click away, trying to capture its beauty on my mobile phone camera. The pink blur I had seen in the air was nowhere to be seen, this beautiful creature before me was jet black with red stripes and dots. A Cinnabar, apparently common in Great Britain. I do not recall every seeing one before, but I have been overseas for most of my adult life.

I congratulated myself on capturing what I thought was a good photo and felt satisfied. I thanked the butterfly for posing and told it I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had seen that day and that it had brightened my day. As I was about to sit down again it flew away but circled around me again and again. I reached out my hand to dare it to land and it did. The butterfly landed on my outstretched hand and I felt an instance connection to the natural world. I was no longer a backdrop in the play, I was in it. I peered closely as its little legs balanced on my fingers as it moved gingerly around my hand. It felt like hours, but it was probably more like 40 seconds.

Sometimes is it those little things, those connections with nature that remind me to slow down in life. If I had not been sitting under a tree with nothing to do but enjoy the moment, I would have missed this. COVID-19 has been an opportunity for me to stop and smell the roses. My mad busy life had gone in a flash, click of the fingers gone; no job, nowhere to rush too, no deadlines to achieve. I do not think I can ever go back to that, to how it was before.

When I got home that day, I shared my picture on social media, so enthralled with my encounter and I researched what it means when a butterfly lands on you. It can mean many things, but I settled on a blessing from an angel and spiritual transformation – it did not really matter. What mattered was it impacted me, and I feel enriched by the experience and will pursue opportunities for many more butterfly landings. I hope you love the picture as much as I do.