Butterfly Burdens (ePub)

A grieving mother is dealing with the one-year anniversary of the death of her daughter. Her life has changed in the year, and she feels disconnected from it in such a way that she is searching for anything familiar. Instead, she remembers a narrative poem created into a children's storybook that her grandma used to read to her often enough that she nearly had it memorized. The poem was about a blue morpho butterfly who is informed by the Lord that he has a special mission. The butterfly has been assigned to a precious soul of a one of his daughters, and his only responsibility is to be available when she prays for the Lord's help to ease burdens, to fly to the child, absorb the burden into a bubble, and then fly that bubble on his back to a special place. He is to fly the bubble to the waterfall of troubled waters; he is to release the bubble filled with her burdens into the mercy pond below, and when the burdens are released like mist into the air, he is to prepare to return to her. Between prayers, he is to rest. But as the poem progresses, the child ages and she prays less and less to the Lord for help in overcoming her burdens. Until at last she is a woman. As a woman, she pleads for help, but not for herself, but for relief for her dying child.

As the woman retells the story of the butterfly, she confesses her own intimate relationship and similarities with the precious soul in the poem. And she expresses her disappointment in never feeling as if her butterfly has ever found its way. She is the narrator of the story and she writes: "It was my grandma who made me believe that I too had a butterfly, out there, somewhere, who just had a poor sense of direction. She would say, "Awe, dear! When it finally finds its way to you, that butterfly's burden-bubbles will keep him busy. You will make him strong. But you need faith. You must keep your hope for him alive. And, unfortunately," she would grin, "you may just need to have a lot more patience in your suffering until he gets here."

But on this day, the first year anniversary of her daughter's passing, it is more than her daughter she mourns: it is the tenth year anniversary of her grandmother's passing too. And feeling overwhelmed, she climbs into a bubble bath and wishes the day away. Until, at last, her sister breaks into the bathroom with a new plan to steal her away and to help her heal.

This fictional short story is for those who find themselves facing a first.