Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Butterflies fly away {and the art of letting go}

Greetings, sweet friends.

My regular readers already know about my butterfly project. Actually, it's not MY butterfly project, but rather a little off-shoot of a much bigger plan that you can read about here.

While I didn't meet my goal of collecting 51 handmade butterflies before my 51st birthday {I received 23}, I can't begin to express how touched I was by all the butterflies I received, and how much I appreciate those who participated and sent butterflies to me. Each butterfly was a beautiful work of art, and I was surprised {and admittedly a little disappointed in myself} that when the time came to bundle them up and ship them to the museum I really didn't want to let them go! I felt a little selfish wanting to keep them, but I knew from the beginning that I these were meant for the museum project to remember the innocent children who perished in the Holocaust. One and a half million children. So I set them free and sent them to the museum this week.




I had them all packaged up and ready to go to the post office on my lunch hour on Tuesday when I received an email from Cheri telling me that the one she had stitched "51" on was for me to keep. I was back and forth on whether to unwrap the box. I wanted to keep it! Wanted to hold on to it as MINE but in the end I left the box taped up and let that beautiful butterfly go to the museum with the others. {Big of me, no?}


Now, as I sit here this morning typing this blog post, I look over and see the tip of a beautiful pink butterfly {made by Annie} that has been buried in a stack of birthday cards and didn't make its way into the photo above or the box that's already been sent. {I'm so sorry, Annie! And now I wonder if there are others that are missing...} I will mail Annie's butterfly today and will feel a little pang of "Oooohhhh...I want to keep this for my own forever!!!" all over again.

And isn't that the way it goes with us humans? We hold on to things that are dear to us. Sentimental fools are we, to think that a little token completes us when really, that token was never meant to be ours forever. What will be mine forever is the sweet memory of each of these butterflies, made in honor of my birthday and my 2012 One Little Word, but most importantly to honor all those children who perished during the Holocaust who never got to celebrate turning 51.

I am blessed beyond measure.
Edit: I just realized I didn't include Stephanie and her daughter's either! Oh what a hot mess I am!!! Sorry, Steph! Anyone else I'm missing? Please let me know. I know that Steph's are in the front of the cool book she sent me.

Also, I want to make note that Jacky's women's group made 20, and my non-blog-friend Denise and her family have made several. That, my friends, puts me OVER the 51 goal. Hooray for me! Hooray for all of us!

13 comments:

Jo.C said...

They look great and no wonder you didn't want to send them. It is a good cause though and you have done your bit.
Enjoy xx

scrappyjacky said...

I understand why you didn't want to send them,Deb.....they are so lovely.
I told you my W.I. was taking it on as a project....and we have about 20 so far....so you could include them towards you 51....as it is only because of your blog post that we knew to make them.

Amanda said...

They look lovely as a group. I'm sorry you didn't make the 51 target but well done and thank you for passing mine on :)

Alison said...

Well done for letting go..what a great collection! Thank you for letting us all get involved in such a worthwhile project
Alison xx

Amy said...

They will make a lovely addition to the larger collection, thanks for letting so many of us know about this wonderful project!

Maria Ontiveros said...

I know that my cousin Irene dropped some off, and my blog friend Tammy Lee Bradley and her son also sent in some as part of a home school project. So, those should definitely count, too.
Rinda

Maria Ontiveros said...

Here's a link to Tammy Lee's post:
http://www.blissandfolly.com/2012/04/art-takes-flight.html
Rinda

Stephanie @ La Dolce Vita said...

I was starting to feel left out until I got to the edit! Lol! Well done deb! A lovely contribution to a worthy cause!

Irene said...

Deb: My ESL classes are planning a trip to the Museum next week. The students will start making butterflies after their visit. If it wasn't for you we would not have known about this project. Glad you met your goal.

M.L. @ The House of Whimsy said...

What a lovely cause to get involved with. They're all beautiful. I sure remember that first one you made from painting canvas fabric...my personal favorite.
Blessings to you, Deb! : )
Mary Lou

Beverly said...

ohhhmygoodness I never told you I did 5 and sent them directly. Will try to post pics of them for you this weekend! It was a great project and certainly raised my awareness.

boysmum2 said...

We are sentimental in many ways. I just lost all and I mean all of my emails from the last 8 yrs, all my contact addresses and email addresses. Everything from Outlook, gone, vanished, poof, nada (computer crash!)And would you believe I can't actually remember half of what was in there. So why am I so worried, life will go on, I will collect more emails for no reason apart from the fact I think I need them! But I will still remain sentimental :)

Mom said...

So proud of what you've accomplished with this project. Not only in the number of butterflies collected, but the awareness you raised--who knew? I didn't until now! So thanks, Sweetie! Love you! xo

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