I read a story the other day about a woman who’d had a terrible experience and was struggling to work past it. She said she read a story about trading memories for butterflies and although this was simply a metaphor, it intrigued me enough to do a little digging and figure out what she was talking about. I found the story and wanted to share it with you to see if it resonated with you in any way. Here’s the story if you want to read the whole thing.

“I will trade you one terrible memory for a memory I have of a young pine tree covered in butterflies.

A hundred monarchs resting on their long flight have lit here, on these green needles. You reach out. The tired creatures crawl onto your arms, wings slowly parting and closing, parting and closing, as they breathe. They rest, covering you in magic. You spin in the sunlight, laughing. You are very small, and they glow like candles behind colored glass.

I will trade you one awful, inescapable thing for this one golden moment in time, this moment of honeycomb light and a warm autumn day tapering to endless evening.

Look, you have made the trade. You can take your memory back anytime, but you do not need to bear it always. Now I will hold it for you so that for a while it can be smaller and further away.

Look at the butterflies.”

After reading this, is there a memory that comes up for you that you’d want to trade for butterflies? Is there someone in your life who you wish you could take an awful memory from them and replace it with butterflies? How did this story play out in your feelings and what did it make you think about?