Tuesday, August 25, 2009

chasing the butterfly

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there's something unspokenly beautiful about nature,
even on rainy days

i was walking home from the bus stop the other day, it was getting dark and pouring like mad. my icicle temperature hands were clinging tightly onto my umbrella in the windy rain. as i trudged towards home, i was feeling outright exhausted after a long day of uni, and was silently cursing the sky for ending my day with a downpour.


then i noticed the trees in my street. they were leafless, but full of little white blossoms, like snow caught in mid air and strung together in a gracefully complex way. despite the howling wind that brought the branches trembling, there was something cheerful and optimistic about the wintry trees. just standing there, in a content yet nonchalant way.


and it made me think, and come to realise, how barricading the unpleasant things by doing other seemingly happier things is only a temporary band-aid. attempting to chase after happiness is futile. perhaps it'd be better, like the white blossom tree, to face the ever-changing weather...simply just as it is.



"Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder"
[Henry David Thoreau]