Butterflies!

I have always loved butterflies. They are such fascinating little creatures – beautiful, delicate, diverse. They are so free spirited, flitting about, dancing in the sunshine...

My romance with butterflies goes way back and runs very deep. As a matter of fact, there is a family joke about butterflies which my elder sister loves to recount. She tells of how I was always chasing after them, totally oblivious to the rest of the world. She once sent me to buy milk at a shop slightly over 10 minutes walk from home to and fro. After almost an hour I came with glowing eyes, excitedly describing the butterflies I had seen and how I had followed them through the grass patch on the way to the shops, but with no milk!

When I think about it now though, butterfly chasing is not always such a productive occupation. For one, they are so delicate, you never really want to actually catch them  because they will get destroyed in your hands – so for all your labour, you have nothing to show. Then again, butterflies never keep still. They are always on the move, flitting from one flower to the next and you never have an idea which the "next" will be, so you are on the move, not knowing where you are going!

Some details in life may be fascinating, but they could lead you off the path you got on when you begun your journey. I like what a friend of mine tells his team whenever they embark on a project – "No chasing butterflies" – and they all know what he means!