Dancing Butterflies

By Manoj Sankar

An excruciating pain struck my back and as usual with the overwhelming confidence due to ignorance and the need to finish the daily chorus of life I started moving.  It did not take me long  to realize that I was in trouble with my back. It did not mean anything much to me until the doctor told me that I’d be bed ridden for a minimum of one month.  And that day has changed my life forever. 

While lying on the wooden bed in the hospital with the instruction to not get up, all I had in my vision and my mind was the white ceiling.  I felt like a lost traveler in a thick forest. I had no clue what lied ahead for me while the world around me continued to move at a frantic pace.

The only solace to my grievance was that I was blessed with a bed near the window. With a blank mind like the ceiling with no immediate agenda in hand, I just looked through the window and I  noticed a butterfly in the garden.

Suddenly it struck my mind, “When was the last time I saw a butterfly?”

One year back? Two years, maybe three? Maybe 10? Maybe when I was 10! Where had all the butterflies gone all these years?

The more I started gazing through the window the more I saw colorful butterflies flying all over the garden in such an elegant and slow pace which made me think, “Why are they in no hurry?” I couldn’t see any competition out there. I couldn’t identify a leader, or the leader was so good that he wasn’t visible. Do they have a plan to reach somewhere by a certain time? Are they bothered about all the chaos happening around them?

Of one thing I was sure: they enjoyed every moment in the garden. Above all I felt the garden, the rose, the plants, the little cricket; even the soil enjoyed the presence of dancing butterflies. I felt an amazing harmony of life. For a little while I had forgotten the agonizing pain in my back.

And I realized what I have been missing all these years…