BayBee
Active Ranker
Today, I want to share a little story from my childhood. A story that changed my perspective and taught me to be a little kinder, a little more mindful, and a little more compassionate towards others.
As a kid, I loved to play in the garden catching all sorts of insects and lizards. My favourite collection was always catching butterflies and keeping them in a jar. One day I was doing the same in my garden and I catched a little butterfly and kept it in a jar. I showed my precious possession to my mother. She looked at me with love and asked me a question which changed something within me forever.
She said, “It's so beautiful, isn't it? Tell me, how would you feel if someone loved you so much that they wanted to keep you inside a jar, just so they could look at you whenever they wanted?”
I looked at her silently and I was really speechless. I never really thought this way before. Putting something i love in my possession and claiming it as mine was my favourite hobby. But that day I felt like how awful i would feel if I were that little butterfly.
That day, I opened the jar and let the butterfly fly away. I continued playing in my garden, but I never again tried to confine a living creature just for the pleasure of possessing it.
A butterfly was meant to fly.
And love, in all its forms, should leave room for freedom.
Sometimes, the kindest thing we can do for something we love is to open the jar.
As a kid, I loved to play in the garden catching all sorts of insects and lizards. My favourite collection was always catching butterflies and keeping them in a jar. One day I was doing the same in my garden and I catched a little butterfly and kept it in a jar. I showed my precious possession to my mother. She looked at me with love and asked me a question which changed something within me forever.
She said, “It's so beautiful, isn't it? Tell me, how would you feel if someone loved you so much that they wanted to keep you inside a jar, just so they could look at you whenever they wanted?”
I looked at her silently and I was really speechless. I never really thought this way before. Putting something i love in my possession and claiming it as mine was my favourite hobby. But that day I felt like how awful i would feel if I were that little butterfly.
That day, I opened the jar and let the butterfly fly away. I continued playing in my garden, but I never again tried to confine a living creature just for the pleasure of possessing it.
A butterfly was meant to fly.
And love, in all its forms, should leave room for freedom.
Sometimes, the kindest thing we can do for something we love is to open the jar.
