The Weight of a Wing

I was walking through the park this morning when I stopped to watch a butterfly resting on a patch of clover. It didn’t seem to care that I was standing there, or that the wind was picking up, threatening to pull it away. It just held its position, perfectly still, as if it were anchored to the earth by some invisible thread. We spend so much of our lives rushing, convinced that if we stop moving, we will lose our place in the world. We equate stillness with being left behind. But watching that small creature, I realized that there is a profound strength in simply staying put. Sometimes, the most important thing you can do is to be exactly where you are, holding your ground while the rest of the world blurs around you. It makes me wonder how much we miss because we are too busy trying to get to the next thing. What would happen if we just let ourselves be still for a while?

Nirupam Roy has captured this exact sense of quiet presence in his image titled Polyura Athamas. It is a beautiful reminder of how much life exists in the smallest, most patient moments. Does this image make you want to slow down today?