...When We Walk By Butterflies...

A few days ago i was walking to class from uptown. For those of you who don't know, uptown is basically a downtown filled with numerous wonderful things. One of the main buildings has been torn down, so there is this little area of gravel, holes, and a lot of grey. Walking past the construction zone this ignoramus, monarch butterfly fluttered between me and the chained fence. There was a guy walking the opposite direction of me. He was doing some hardcore texting and totally missed out on the goliath butterfly. It was a shame and I stopped to consider how many times God's sent me something glorious, and I had been busy on MY phone. It's not just with butterflies...

I am an R.A. (in the coolest, freaking dorm ever), and our building is notorious for the internet crashing. Take 119 or so, un-airconditioned, 17-18 year olds, and strip them of their Facespace/Youtube/Skype or any form of internet and it quickly becomes extreme anarchy. To get a better picture, just imagine that scene from Return of the King, when the army is coming to destroy everything and everyone knows everyone will die, ya...that about does it justice. But, here's the irony of it all, suddenly the hermit-lonely, newbies have created unity of an extraordinary picture. Regardless of being different colored, having different backgrounds, or being uncomfortable to meet one another- they suddenly all had ONE THING IN COMMON: UNHAPPINESS. hahahaha I'm terrible for laughing, because as R.A.'s I should not want my students living in agony. People we're running around talking to one another and I sat back to think about that. WOW....here we are, a mini community of PEOPLE, who would rather drown ourselves in finding companions online - when there are over a hundred new people in the same building to meet. At this point I wanted to screw up the internet for the rest of the year. It truly is more of a waste than a help (and I say this hypocritically, as I use it right now writing, along with itunes, skype, and facespace windows open as well).

Both of these scenarios reminded me of the blessings God gives us that we miss daily. We miss the kids laughing in the fountains. We miss the sunshine on our face, because it makes us hot. We miss the joy in the face, of the old lonely man walking his dog. We miss the person in their room crying from homesickness. We miss the chance to make a friend, maybe a best friend.

It's a sad day, as a nation, when we trade neighbors, family, friends, and the world for fake interaction. I'm not here to bash. I'm not here to say i hate technology- because, I don't, in fact i truly love it. I text more than some Jr. High girls; I use Facebook religiously; and I feel the need to once in a while still feed my stupid Neopets. (*pushes glasses up* waving to all geeks out there). But for real, gosh I'd HATE living without all of it...but, it's a love-hate relationship.

I just wanna encourage you all with my stance to start putting down the laptop and phone a little more often.

I wanna see the Butterflies.

I'm not missing out

anymore.

Faith and prayers.