I SEA Butterflies…

Number 9 in our countdown of the 10 things I like best about Pescara.

As you may or may not know my book, The Back Side of Wonderful, went to the printer yesterday! You’ll be the first (after me!) to hear about how to get a copy (or several!). We’re almost there: My first book!

Maybe this is why this morning there is an added calmness as I awake. There is freedom in letting something become what it needs to be. After years of writing, editing, and designing I have allowed it to fly free (if you would permit me to be so lofty so early in the quiet of the Italian summer morning).

My book began three years ago with the flight of one butterfly, this unlikeliest of messengers who unlocks the secret to the meaning of life for me. I have been seeing them ever since, in all shapes and sizes, real ones of every color, tattooed ones, spray-painted ones, toy ones, you name it. They keep Popping up Everywhere as a reminder of the enlightenment that this first one brought to me three years ago.

Well, here we are rehearsing our largest group in Pescara for the Mediterranean Games—300 people who will form the Mediterranean Sea. And as in every show (or life I suppose), when you take such a large group and bring them together and everyone is trying hard to find their place, to fall into step, eager to add their energy, to be a part and make a statement, to find their ownership and turn ordinary into extraordinary…(just like in life I suppose), there comes one rehearsal when the trying simply stops… and it just becomes what it needs to be… I stop teaching on the microphone and allow them to be what I always knew they could be. They have found their strength as a team and begin to dance on their own without need of assistance. Well, this weekend it happened and much to my Joy and also my Surprise, the Universe had a twist to put on it for me.

The costume they all are now wearing is a big blue cape that extends past their natural arms’ lengths by three feet on either side; they hold sticks underneath their capes so they actually have a wingspan of 9 feet. We have been rehearsing for weeks without costumes, just holding brown wooden sticks in each hand as we go over and over the steps and many formation changes to the music.

I could feel their power combine, and I did not have to lead them any longer on the microphone. I just stopped talking and allowed them to go on confidently with the beat of the music...

It is then I realized that the SEA we had created for the past 2 months was actually hundreds of blue winged butterflies dancing before me in perfect unison. Without the need of assistance from me, they were flying on their own so joyfully and with such pride and confidence that you could actually feel there combined strength, they had indeed found their power to fly.

I was hit in the gut with this revelation, such a wave of pride came out of me for these people who had put their belief in me, allowing me to help them find their place.

And now they have found the strength in themselves which I knew they always had, all flying together on the field before me as I watched through silent tears in awe of what they have accomplished, and in humble acceptance of the gift the universe has given me again in the form of butterflies...

Yes, Universe, I do indeed SEA butterflies everyday! Pescara has hundreds of them!