Chasing the Divine

Photo of a briefly alighting monarch butterfly on a flowering wintergreen stem. Taken at Mercy by the Sea in Madison, CT.

Like the brief and transient sighting of a butterfly, the Divine seems to alight themself on the flowering foliage of life in unexpected breath-held moments.

It’s these moments I find myself chasing.

There have been times that I’ve held the moment so tightly that it dies in my eager hands. At other times, the moment disappeared as quickly as it emerged— into the distractions of everyday life. And yet other times, I’ve been overwhelmed to tears by the beauty of its momentary alight-enment.

I’m determined to chase these encounters and sit in enraptured awe at the emergence of the mystical deep while I wonder: What is the nature of these moments? Why are they overlooked in plain sight? What happens in the naming of the experience that seems to destroy it?

So many questions to follow on this chase, and yet…if I were to wrap my hands around an answer, I know I would be mysteriously compelled to open my hands…

…and begin the chase again.