Dreams are like butterflies, beautiful and gentle. Always dancing and flittering just out of your reach. Elusive and coy. Clear, yet somehow just a vapor. Very few who have somehow managed to grab that golden ring or bottle that genie, have truly been satisfied. It always seems that the initial intoxication and euphoria slowly dissipates into the aether. Whether it's the loose floorboards and peeling paint in your new dream home, the burdensome grind of that high-paying new job, or the morning breath of your beloved, it seems that everything looks so much less perfect once the translucent veil of the dream-induced fog is pulled back. Just when you think that you have achieved everything that you ever wanted or finally corralled happiness, you start to notice its flaws. You see its scars. You learn that reality can be so much more troublesome and aggravating than the one-way road of our daydreams or fancies or fantasies. There is a saying that says "Better is the enemy of good enough." I think that we need to take this to heart as we try to capture that butterfly. Of course, there is an important difference between "good enough" and settling for something lesser when you deserve something better. But I just think that we need to be fully certain of what we need and what we want and what we truly desire before we let that butterfly loose. Once it is gone, you may not see another again.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Butterflies
Dreams are like butterflies, beautiful and gentle. Always dancing and flittering just out of your reach. Elusive and coy. Clear, yet somehow just a vapor. Very few who have somehow managed to grab that golden ring or bottle that genie, have truly been satisfied. It always seems that the initial intoxication and euphoria slowly dissipates into the aether. Whether it's the loose floorboards and peeling paint in your new dream home, the burdensome grind of that high-paying new job, or the morning breath of your beloved, it seems that everything looks so much less perfect once the translucent veil of the dream-induced fog is pulled back. Just when you think that you have achieved everything that you ever wanted or finally corralled happiness, you start to notice its flaws. You see its scars. You learn that reality can be so much more troublesome and aggravating than the one-way road of our daydreams or fancies or fantasies. There is a saying that says "Better is the enemy of good enough." I think that we need to take this to heart as we try to capture that butterfly. Of course, there is an important difference between "good enough" and settling for something lesser when you deserve something better. But I just think that we need to be fully certain of what we need and what we want and what we truly desire before we let that butterfly loose. Once it is gone, you may not see another again.
