How Does The Butterfly Help Us?

How does the butterfly help those in grief?
By Jackie Wesley

Many people who have never attended a Compassionate Friends meeting or one of our special programs such as the Candlelight service in December or the picnic and balloon release in June might not know why the butterfly is one of our symbols. It can be a symbol for anyone who has had a loved one die. Here is the meaning it has for TCF:
The Compassionate Friends use butterflies because they symbolize renewed life. The caterpillar signifies life here on earth; the cocoon, death; and the butterfly, the emergence of the dead into a new, beautiful and freer existence. The late writer Elisabeth Kubler-Ross movingly told of seeing butterflies drawn all over the walls of the children's dormitories in the World War II concentration camps. Since Elisabeth believed in the innate intuitiveness of children, she concluded that these children knew their fate and were leaving us a message. Many members of The Compassionate Friends embrace the butterfly as such a symbol. To them, it is a comforting thought and sign of hope that their children are living in another dimension with greater beauty and freedom.
Is it no wonder that we can get excited when a butterfly lands on us, or we see one at a time we are especially lonely for our child? Sometimes they come into the house and even during the winter we hear that someone has spotted a butterfly. Many of us feel that butterfly sightings are signs that our children are still with us and are OK.
Often we talk about butterflies that we have seen--how it’s unusual to be able to hold a butterfly and pass it around to the family members for forty-five minutes or to have one drink from your hand. We have experienced these things, and it gives us comfort every time. Butterflies have come into our house just before Christmas, not once but twice. I am also one who believes there are signs from our children. Does anyone have a story to share with us?