Butterflies – Straight from the Heart

Butterflies are deep and powerful representations of life. Many cultures associate the butterfly with our souls. The Christian religion sees the butterfly as a symbol of resurrection. Around the world, people view the butterfly as representing endurance, change, hope, and life.
www.gardenswithwings.com

The dragonfly, in almost every part of the world, symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self-realization; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life.
www.dragonflytransitions.com

I’ve been working on my creations for the past several days and enjoyed every minute of it. They would have been so much easier and faster if I could draw. But, since I can’t, I created them using various shapes. Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that. But, thanks to PaintShop Pro, I have all the tools I need to stretch and manipulate those shapes into anything I want them to be. So, you see? You don’t have to know how to draw to create fun and inspiring designs. You just have to have a little imagination.

Shapes that I used are circles, hearts, bows, and flower leaves. After creating an image, I added color and special effects using the tools in PaintShop Pro 2019 ultimate. Other, more in-depth effects are plugins that I downloaded to Paint Shop Pro. My favorites are Harry’s Filters http://www.thepluginsite.com and Flaming Pear http://www.flamingpear.com

I hope you enjoy my creations and that they put a smile on your face.
Free for you to use and to share
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A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

–Author Unknown