Happiness is a butterfly

OASIS

Lisa Genova’s book Still Alice is about a Harvard professor, Alice Howland who is struggling with Alzheimer’s as it starts to creep into her life in her 50s. At first, she brushes off the symptoms as an off-shoot of ageing. As her memory slips away, she fights to remember things from her childhood, especially the butterflies.

When she first learns from her mother that they lived only for a few days, she feels distraught. Her mother comforts her saying, “Watch them flying in the warm sun among the daisies in the garden; just because their lives are short doesn’t mean they are tragic, they have a beautiful life.” Even in her lonely and trapped state of mind, she feels the happiness enveloping her as she visualises the scenario.

John Keats pours his heart out to his love interest Fanny Brawne, invoking butterflies: “I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days — three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” The same sentiment is echoed by Rabindranath Tagore when he says, “The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”

Be it a prince or a pauper, everyone surrenders to the beauty of the butterfly with a smile on their face. It’s a perfect metaphor for happiness — a butterfly that when pursued seems always just beyond your grasp. But if you sit down quietly, it may alight upon you. Happiness too is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will spread its wings and reach your heart.

We all face storms in our lives, say, by a tiny virus or a senseless war taking its toll in the form of death, destruction and misery. But it’s a matter of time before the storm clears and calmness descends.

When life falls back into place, peace brings beauty and happiness with it. In the words of Ruskin Bond, “And when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.” Yes, the butterfly always brings happiness and beauty — before, during and after the war.