Butterflies Are Now in My Life

            I used to resist the butterfly as an image.  As strange as that might sound. There so many other symbols and images that I was drawn to over butterflies. If you believe in spirit animals then you know that a lot pf people claim theirs to be the butterfly. My spirit animal is rarer, it’s a cow! If you know then you are not surprised at all. The meaning behind the butterfly varies from region to region and from culture to culture. Most of the meanings are centered around rebirth, freedom, and hope. 

            Butterflies make a transformation from an egg to a beautiful insect. Now the thought of an insect doesn’t sit well with me, there is just something about them that makes my skin crawl. The entire process of becoming a butterfly is kind of gross if you really look into it, but I am sure it doesn’t bother most people like it does me. Even though I don’t find the process all that appealing I do understand why it is fascinating and you can attribute freedom, rebirth, and other attributes to them. I’ll be honest there were some people in my past that were obsessed with butterflies and I didn’t have a good relationship with them so it turned me off even more, but as I’ve grown up that no longer plays into my dislike of things.

            I have been amazed just how many butterflies are used in a lot of things as the official mascot. A lot of times the butterfly is used when dealing with diseases, which is weird to me because butterflies aren’t harmful, mean animals and those are the type of mascots that I think diseases should use because they are so horrific. I guess using something as unassuming as a butterfly makes the disease not as threatening or something, 

            When I first got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I learned the disease went by two different nicknames and had two separate mascots. The first is the snowflake because the disease varies so much from person to person and the images can replicate snowflakes with taken by MRI. The second is the butterfly because again the images from an MRI can resemble a butterfly and each butterfly is different in its coloring, wing span, and life expectancy. Then it seemed each new disease I developed stated their mascot was a butterfly or it has something to do with a butterfly which I have found fascinating. My lupus diagnosis came because I had a rash across my face that was shaped so much like a butterfly that it was wild. 

            Several people I admire claim butterflies as their personal symbol and I associate them together now. So, I have slowly been coming around on the idea of the butterfly as a symbol and what it can mean in my life. I am not going to go crazy and redecorate the house with butterflies because I love my cow’s way too much! I am going to start embracing them and how they can help me get me information out about the diseases, my messaging about how to deal with chronic immune diseases, and just overall experiences. So, here’s to loving butterflies, their meanings, and how they fit into my life.