Lamisha Serf-Walls

My Monarch Messenger

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This past weekend as my partner was leaving to run some errands, she noticed we had a beautiful visitor just outside the front door.  A monarch butterfly had landed on our mums and decided to stay awhile, several hours to be exact.  Every once and awhile it would fly out to the front yard, around our tree and back again. When she showed me the picture she had taken, I was intrigued.

I have seen many butterflies recently on walks around our neighborhood.  I have seen all yellow ones, black ones, and even gorgeous black and yellow ones quite frequently, and every time I see a new one, I smile.  I am reminded of the transformation that takes place inside the cocoon in order for this gorgeous creature to emerge.  Since I have been seeing more and more butterflies recently, I have found it to be a confirmation of my own transformation taking place and a message that I am not alone on my journey. (Something I know to be true, but a little reminder every now and then doesn’t hurt.)

Though I have seen several butterflies recently there were two things that made this particular butterfly stand out to me.  One is that it was a monarch butterfly and in the year we have lived here, I have never seen a monarch butterfly, let alone have one visit us for such a long time.  The other thing that made this butterfly stand out to me is the length of time it stayed perched on our flowers, flying away every once in a while only to return to its original place.  I couldn’t help but think there was some sort of symbolism or message that we were supposed to get.  And since I know there are no such things as coincidences, I wanted to find out the message from our monarch.

Our weekend visitor

Here is what I found from www.zimbio.com.  “Monarchs bring the message of courage: have courage, walk with courage, make changes in courage.  This butterfly travels huge distances on their annual migration following the same route as many birds.  Humans do not have the courage, generally, to travel to unknown places with the conviction of faith that the Monarchs have.  That is the other part of the message-to have faith.  Monarchs realize that the world is not something they control, and yet they make this huge journey.  Humans feel the need to control everything-people, environment, weather, plants and animals.  The message is to let go and let the journey happen. (from Spirit Animals-the Monarch Butterfly-Missing August 29, 2008)

There are many lines in this seemingly small passage that speak to me, one of which is to walk and make changes with courage.  Change has the ability to excite and scare me all in the same breath, and while my journey forward isn’t always outlined and mapped out for me, courage is a necessity to keep moving forward.

Having faith is another part of the message that really resonated with me.  Despite not knowing what may come around the corner, we all must have faith that it will work out for us no matter what.  Sure maybe our journey didn’t take us the route we thought we should go, but in the end sometimes the route we didn’t think of is much better.  We must keep the faith that all will be revealed at the right time, and we will end up exactly where we should be, even if it isn’t where we thought we would end up.

This takes me to the idea of control.  This piece hit a chord with me more than I would like to admit.  I, like many people I am sure, have this desire to have as much control as possible over the outcomes of my dreams, job, and life in general.  The reality is, I can’t really control everything…though try as I might, it just doesn’t work.  So in order to succeed on any journey we are on in life, we must learn to “let go and let the journey happen”.  I love that so much.

Thank you my monarch messenger for such an amazing gift of your beauty, and the reminder to have courage and faith as I move toward my dreams and just when I feel frustration and resistance setting in, I will learn to let go and allow my journey to happen.

How do you let go and allow your journey to simply unfold?

My (not so) Tiny Triumph

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Today has been one of those days filled with ample frustration, work, and irritation.  For the most part my day job runs fairly smoothly without much headache, but boy was today different.  I felt like my energy was spread about in many different directions yet little was getting accomplished.  As I felt my stress building, I received an inspirational email about the upside to irritation.  Clearly this email was meant for me to read at that exact moment.  (I love when that happens. )

The email talked about how every moment or circumstance that invokes frustration or any other negative emotion, is an opportunity to find peace.  It sounds a little bit backwards, but when I took the time to think about it, I could see the point.  Every moment I allowed the frustration of the day to get to me was one less peaceful moment.  I had to make a choice to allow the circumstances that I couldn’t control (most of the work circumstances) to be however they were going to be and change my response to them.

I would love to say I got the message and my entire day turned around, but that’s not entirely true.

As the day wore on the frustration wore me out, literally and it caused me to lose some focus.  I began worrying about all the other things I had to do for the evening that were also piling up because of the lack of time (or the perception of lack, but more on that in another post).  One frustrating thought lead to another and it created a snowball effect from there.  I finally made the choice to change that.

I changed my thoughts.

My mantra for the day changed.  Instead of thinking “I don’t have time to ______(fill in the blank)”, I began thinking, “I will do what I can.”  It was amazing what happened.  I felt lighter, more productive, and surprisingly more in control.  Was all my work done in the matter of minutes?  No, but my focus had changed from what I couldn’t do and what I didn’t have (time), to what I could accomplish in the time I had left.  Everything else that didn’t take top priority for the moment was put on my list for tomorrow and the best part about it all is now I have enough energy and mental power to get a few items done this evening.  One of which is relaxing after a long day.
This may seem like a tiny triumph for one day, but to me it is a lifetime lesson.

There are bound to be many more moments when I feel overwhelmed with all of my commitments especially having a family, working full-time, training for life coaching (in the future), and starting my business.  There will be times when I need to take a step back find my peace in the midst of chaos and with this one lesson I will be a little more prepared for the future.

When you look at it that way, this seemingly tiny triumph isn’t so tiny at all.

What about you? What do you do when you feel overwhelmed or frustrated?