Updates from the Other Side
How I Found my Way Back to the Light
Hello, Friend,
This is my offering for #StandwithHope and #INeverSawAnotherButterfly, a gentle reminder, if you will, that regardless of the current Carnival of the Obscene, there is still joy on the other side of our digital distractions. There is wonder, yet, to be explored. If we lift our gaze to re-discover life’s everyday magic, we remember ‘the good in the world that is worth fighting for.’
Butterflies are delicate, ephemeral, beautiful creatures, but they are also tenacious, determined, and strong. Consider the monarch’s journey. Let it inspire you to reach deeper and find your resolve.
Updates from the Other Side
by Margot Potter
With the flick of a fingertip, I silenced the hum of the television and rejected the relentless need of the cell phone apps playing the rat ta tat tat of the snare drum behind the addlepated vulgarian. Standing center ring in an ill-fitted jacket whipping the scarred hide of the shuffling pachyderm, he screams obscenities to the insatiable crowd.
More!
More!
More!
Their chants rise higher and higher. While the rest of us, peering between the tent flaps, bent but not yet broken, stand frozen, gape mouthed, confused whispering into the cacophony…
No more!
No more!
No more!
Our digital oasis fever dream turned nightmare holds us spellbound and helpless.
Turning towards the embrace of the sun’s rays, eyes adjusting to the unfamiliar light, I saw them, a flurry of motion, flittering and skittering from bloom to bloom. Hundreds of butterflies dancing in a sea of vibrant color.
I had almost forgotten how pink pink could be, the shocking brilliance of unabashed yellow, the exclamation point of vivid orange juxtaposed against the certainty of deep verdant green dappled with flecks of chartreuse-an explosion of motion and color and joy.
Inhale. Exhale. Let go.
The low thrum of worker bees kept a constant rhythm behind the symphony of songbirds, wrenching my consciousness back to the awareness of these everyday miracles, simple wonders never faltering, asking nothing beyond mere presence. This, this impossible, fantastical, wondrous world will never be replicated by the Titans of Tech casting their sad shadows on flickering screens in hopes of enthralling the masses.
Unplugged, unfettered, unafraid, reconnected by disconnecting. I found my way back to the light.
More.
More.
More.
Life begins on the other side of the tent.
I hope that you’ll join me in small acts of defiant creativity, in sharing your butterflies in whatever medium calls you and in doing so, elevating the discourse.
We have magic to make. Together.
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It takes copious amounts of chutzpah, moxie, and caffeine to fuel this party, consider buying the lady a cup of coffee!
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Beautiful! Also makes me wonder if we were surfing the same creative airwaves ;-)
Beautiful depiction of our world....step away from the screen and embrace nature and the world around you.