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Inspirational Stories
Stories Contributed by Our Visitors:
January 2010 to Present
(Newest Items at Top of List)
Click HERE to give us your story
- Tara Martin, Cincinnati, OH
- I was 31 years old! I lost my Father in October of 2005 to lung cancer! He was my hero. My life! I cursed God's name. I swore I would never believe again - in anything, God or humans! My Father was gone! I was alone, I was sure NOBODY could relate! I was sure NOBODY had ever lost their Father and even if they had it was surely not as devastating as my loss! Self-pity was the order of the day!
As I was traveling from my Mother's home to my home to gather my things for the funeral, I was in my car with slits for eyes from the crying and wailing and I took the "scenic" route for this hour and a half journey. As I was busy cursing God's name - I started to see all these tiny white butterflies in the fields on the road I was traveling on. Hundreds of them in some spots. I was bewildered.
As I arrived home one single white butterfly accompanied me to the door! I paced and headed back and this time took a different route and low and behold those same tiny white butterflies everywhere. I am a recovering alcoholic and my program teaches me that God does for me what I could not do for myself! To this day, 4 and a half years later, those same tiny white butterflies magically show up when I'm sad, when I'm hurting, when I need my Father the most. What I have come to believe is that those tiny white butterflies are God doing for me what I could not do for myself! His gentle way of reminding me I am not alone and that the sight of them bring me such comfort! My Buddhist nail technician said "they are your Dad"! The comfort is unbelievable and I have a relationship with God today as I never had in my life! Tiny white butterflies - from death to life!
- Ashley Rudd, Stockbridge, GA
- One of my best friends died September 1st and the day of his funeral we all went back to his house and I was sitting in the backyard by myself and I looked over towards the pool where we had spent all summer together and I saw these two yellow butterflies just flying around and I just remember sitting there mesmerized by how they were just so beautiful flying around in circles. I went back over to his house a couple weeks later and I saw this drawing that another one of his friends had drawn for a tattoo and it was of a yellow butterfly. Apparently she had been seeing them around too and when I asked his mom about it she told me that she had been seeing them too flying all around their yard.
- Melody Tiempo, Caloocan City, PHILIPPINES
- I really love butterflies. I used to love them since my best friend gave me a gift which is a butterfly. Our relationship as best friend is still going strong because of butterflies. It symbolizes our friendship, and I am hoping that it will last and no one can break our friendship because like a butterfly I maybe die when someone stole him from me.
- Sue Allen, Warwickshire, GREAT BRITAIN
- Hi my name is Sue. My daughter committed suicide on 25th December at the age of 27 in 2008. I wanted a tattoo in memory of her but I couldn't make my mind up what to have, then a friend said to me one day why don't you have a butterfly. She's flying free and they are brightly coloured and they are all around you in the summer. So that's what I had done with her name in the middle of it. After I had it done I always saw a butterfly wherever I went. It was as if she was telling me that she was there with me and she liked what I had done. I have many things that have butterflies on them - books, bags, purses and folders, necklaces and earrings and keyrings. When I buy them I just feel close to her. It may sound funny to other people but it comforts me. So that is my story.
- Alistair, Inverness, UK
- My wife felt tired on the evening of Friday 4 Dec. 2009 after coming home from work. This was unusual as she followed all the rules of healthy living, gym memberships, swam regularly and ate only healthy meals. By Saturday she was exhausted even climbing the stairs and doing simple tasks. We visited the local hospital emergency department where they diagnosed a kidney infection and gave her antibiotics. By Sunday morning her eyes and skin had taken on a yellow tint and she was unable to perform simple physical tasks. On Monday we visited our GP and she did bloods promising results by Wednesday, however she called on Monday evening and asked me to admit her to hospital within 1 hour.
Over the next 48 hours they had diagnosed advanced pancreatic and liver cancer which had been masked by her high fitness level.
Unfortunately her decline was rapid and she passed away on 21 December. This was the breaking of what was a close family chain. I was privileged to be there holding her hand when she passed.
The funeral was held on the 29th December and the church was almost unable to hold all the people who turned up to pay their respects. It was late December -3.5 degrees outside with deep snow and as is normal the church was not so warm. As the minister stood up to start the funeral service a butterfly flew around the church several times to the astonishment of the mourners, then vanished. The minister explained the significance of a butterfly which is the symbol of the resurrection during the Easter celebration. We as a family take great comfort that she was there with us at the service and is waiting to link the family chain again when we are eventually called one by one.
- Eveline, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
- I have to warn you that this is not your usual inspirational butterfly story, I haven't lost a friend or relative recently, and no one is particularly sick either.
This story may inspire you because of a small butterfly's will to be a "normal" member of its species.
My neighbours sometimes jokingly call me the "butterfly whisperer" and I find that fun. Here in New Zealand we don't have a lot of big or colourful butterflies so I have fallen in love with the exotic Monarchs and grow lots of swan plants to attract them to my summer garden. We have a lot of trouble to get these fabulous creatures from egg to air-born beauty because of predatory wasps which kill and fly off with caterpillars both large and small - they even attack the chrysalises!
On this particular sunny morning, I kept an eye on one of my darkened chrysalises which was ready to emerge. So few had made it to this stage and I was so pleased for this particular one. I went off to attend to some other task and when I returned minutes later the butterfly was out but had fallen to the ground. I was stricken to see that a wasp was on it and had bitten its still-soft wing. I chased away the wasp, but could see that my butterfly had been wounded. I coaxed him back on to his branch where he could continue to pump and dry his wings but I wondered if it would have been kinder to kill him there and then - I decided to wait and see.
It turned out that one of my butterfly's four wings could not develop, in short, he was a 'butter' with no 'fly'. He was so perfect in all other ways that I decided to let him live.
For the next two weeks I moved him from bright flower to bright flower but in periodically trying to get himself airborne, he fluttered on the groung quite a bit and his wings slowly became more and more tattered as aging wings do. When my butterfly saw his friends flying overhead, he flashed his welcome. On one particular day, his invitation was accepted and a lady came down and appeared to mate with him. Under normal circumstances the female would join with him and she would fly off with him attached for a length of time. Now this did not happen, I will not lie, but it would have been fantastic wouldn't it? It was a bone fide date though and I was so happy for him - at least he got the thrill of that experience!
Well, I didn't see him for a couple of days and then I found his little body under a bush and buried him under his mother swan plant.
You can make of this story what you will, but it made me happy to see this little butterfly try to be a fully paid-up member of his society despite his disability.
- Terry, The Woodlands, TX
- When my mother passed away in 2006 at the graveside service a large butterfly flew over her casket the entire time the minister was speaking. Afterwards my sisters spoke of noticing this.
On the way back home (several states away) small yellow butterflies would fly in front of our windshield. At home for weeks every time I stepped out the front door the same small yellow butterflies would fly near me sometimes right in my face.
One day about a month after Mom's death I was speaking with a neighbor at the curb telling her Mom had passed away. A large butterfly like the one which had flown over her casket lighted on my arm and stayed there as I spoke to the neighbor.
Many times in the years since my mom has passed when I am distressed about something a butterfly will fly right in front of my face and light on a shrub nearby.
A few years before Mom passed away she had given all her daughters a small, inexpensive glass butterfly container. I just stuck mine away in a drawer. At the time I had no idea Mom liked butterflies and the little container really didn't mean much to me. Much later after the live butterfly happenings I noticed Mom had butterfly motifs in both her bathrooms - not that unusual, I guess, but between that and the butterfly container I began to realize something.
That's when I did some research on the butterfly symbol. I had never realized its significance of resurrection. Mom was a Christian and I think when she died that she asked God to use that symbol to send us a message that she is okay and that she sees us from time to time. I think that she believes we will realize that the symbol meant something to her and we will know that the real butterflies are a message from her to us.
- Jolene, Wailuku, HI
- I believe my Grandma comes to visit us, in the form of a Beautiful Monarch Butterfly. Every day when I pick up my children from school, I will see many butterflies, and often one will fly right across real close in front of our car window. At different parks, we will see her and when we were at one park one day, I was feeling a bit down, and a butterfly flew all around me. My daughter exclaimed, "Mommy, did you see that butterfly flying around you?" "That's Great Grandma!" I replied. Just recently at a swimming pool, a beautiful monarch flew right around my daughter and right above her, just skimming her head! Grace often tells me, "I saw Great Grandma today at school!" We feel comfort and peace, when Grandma comes to visit us in butterfly form, and feel her presence and love, guidance and help, every day in our lives. Thank you, for letting me share our story!
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