I drew this butterfly as a special gift.
Butterflies can represent many different things:
– Change and transformation
– New life
– Endurance
– Hope
I picked up my Elizabeth Kubler Ross book after 23+ years… She studied more than 20,000 people who have had near-death experiences, including those who had been declared clinically dead, but had ‘come back to life’ again. She says that ‘those who have had near-death experiences no longer fear dying – indeed, some recall reluctance to return from “the other side”‘. And she describes the process of dying,
‘The dying experience is almost identical to the one at birth. It is a birth into a different existence’.
Butterfly symbolism can be profound. To see a butterfly can be seen as a ‘sign’, if you choose to believe.
I remember reading about butterflies in Elizabeth Kübler Ross, in February 1997, then going for a walk with Ronan when he was about 4 – one of my favourite times! We were all wrapped up in our winter woolies, when a beautiful, unseasonal peacock butterfly fluttered over our heads.
It was a wee spine-tingling, magical moment!
Here are a few of the photos of the stages in drawing I took along the way – ‘work in progress’.
This drawing took me quite a while, as I can only manage the details when I have my lenses in my non-transplant eye. (My lenses (hard on soft) aren’t behaving too well just now)…
I also need my reading glasses on, and to use a magnifying glass as well as don a head-torch! It’s not a good look!
If you like butterflies, you might want to have a wee look at my Orange Tip drawing.
