Cherokee Sage Woman

I was laying out in the sunshine, on my new deck today.. enjoying the rising of my serotonin levels.. when out of my eyes periphery I see a winged thing coming at me. Now, this creature could have been my arch nemesis, i.e., bees/wasps/yellow jackets/ things-of-unknown origins-with-stingers-attached.
But it was a beautiful swallow tail butterfly.. & I swatted at it, scaring the bejesus out of it, no doubt.
I was immediately taken back to my Cherokee Mama who taught me as a child that ladybugs & butterflies brought special blessings to you when they passed over you. I've always made a special attempt at allowing a ladybug to climb onto my finger, making a wish, & then allowing her to fly away. And of course the metamorphosis of the butterfly from caterpillar to the winged goddess, has always facinated me.. to the point of making it the symbol of SpiritWorks.
So I felt bad that I had dismissed this 'blessing' so rapidly & rudely. Isn't that the way it is in 'real time' tho? We tend to knee-jerk-react to perceived fearful things before even thinking. We slap the Universe's gifts away before we realize what we've done.
Mea culpa.

Bring back the butterflies..