Me, Undisguised

This incident happened on the second day after the sem has started. For sentimental reasons, the date was December 6, 2005. I had no classes that day so I made a date with a girlfriend of mine to go out. I was sitting at the bus stop, (obviously) waiting for the bus. If I’m not mistaken, it was around 11.30 in the morning, or maybe a bit later than that. Anyway, there I was just watching the cars drive past, when I was “visited” by this beautiful creature. It was a small butterfly, light gray in colour. You might think that gray is not a very attractive colour, I didn’t either at first, but as I looked closer at the butterfly, I saw that it had tiny yellow patterns at the corner of its wings that made it look rather alluring. What surprised me was the fact that instead of landing on the plants nearby, it decided to land on my hand. Maybe it was attracted to the perfume I wore, or maybe it was just confused, but it gave me a nice feeling nevertheless. I guess the butterfly was trying to get some nectar out of me because it made a sort of digging movement (at least, that was what it looked like) and it felt rather ticklish. I shooed it away, half hoping that it would decide to go to the plants instead. I was wrong. It came back, landed on my hand again, and resumed its business as if nothing had happened. It remained on my hand, occasionally moving on to land on my tudung and my blouse, but it will always go back to my hand. This continued until the bus came 10 minutes later, and sadly this time I had to shoo it away for good.

I know to some of you this incident might be of no importance, but to me it was amazing. I felt truly honoured that a creature so delicate and exquisite trusted me enough to land on my hand, not just for a few seconds, but a long 10 minutes. No, nothing out of the ordinary happened that day after the incident, nor did I meet anybody special. But I will always remember the feeling it gave me as if it was only yesterday. It is like this quote I stumbled upon the other day, I can’t remember who said it, but it went something like this: “You may forget what people say, or what they did, but you will never forget how they made you feel.” How true. Sometimes the ‘little things’ DO count. In this world where everything comes with a price, I had forgotten. The reminder came in the form of a little gray butterfly. And for that I am grateful.