Are you ready to meditate with Kori?
Lie down and get really comfortable in your bed so that you can completely relax your body.
Try and stay still and quiet so your muscles can relax and your body can let go of any stress or tension from your day.
Close down your eyes if it feels good for you and that way you can visualize in your mind as I go through the story.
See if you can slow down your breathing,
Just make it nice and calm and slow and this will help you to relax your body as well as your mind.
Sam was a butterfly.
There was a butterfly that was eager for change.
Change is something that everyone has to do.
It's something that happens constantly,
Regardless of whether we want it to or not.
Change is part of life,
Nothing ever stays the same.
Sam the butterfly had a friend that was a snail called Harold.
They'd been friends since they were really,
Really small.
Sam wanted Harold the snail to change.
That's what he was so impatient about.
He wanted Harold to be able to be faster,
To get to places faster,
To do whatever they were doing together faster.
Sam being a butterfly was light and quick and very,
Very mobile.
Sam's wings would take him anywhere he needed to go and he was so used to that and even though he'd been friends with Harold for the longest time,
It still was something that was an annoyance to him that Harold took his time doing everything.
Now when you're someone that is always on the go,
Always busy,
Always doing something,
When you're someone that's efficient and organized,
Punctual,
When you're someone that takes a lot of effort to get things done on time or correctly or even perfectly,
It's very,
Very hard for that type of butterfly like Sam or person,
Like maybe you or me,
To understand others that don't do it just like us.
But Harold the snail wasn't that way at all.
He was very chilled.
He didn't stress.
He didn't worry.
In fact,
Harold was a lot like the wind.
He just went with the flow.
Harold would eventually get things done.
Some may say he procrastinated way too long or left things to last minute,
But to Harold it didn't feel like that.
Harold just did it at his own pace,
In his own time,
And eventually it would happen.
You see,
Harold was okay with eventually.
He was okay with being relaxed and calm and chilled.
Sam just thought that Harold was slow,
But Harold didn't think he was slow.
He was very happy with his pace,
So Sam wanted this to change.
Sam nagged at Harold all the time.
He told him constantly how he should do things.
Try this,
Do this,
Be like this,
Stop doing it like that,
Do it like this.
How can you do it like that?
Do it like I do it,
Like this,
Constantly,
Over and over again,
Trying to tell Harold that Harold basically wasn't good enough being Harold.
Because Sam was so involved,
So self-absorbed in his own way of doing things,
In his own way of being,
That he of course thought that was the only way that was correct,
And anyone else that did it any other way than Sam's way was obviously doing it wrong.
Harold would just let Sam go on and on and on,
Because Sam couldn't help himself.
It was his personality,
That's just who he was,
Whereas Harold was so chill,
So easy-going,
So calm,
That he didn't let Sam bother him so much because Sam was just being Sam.
But Sam was insistent on Harold changing.
He was desperate for Harold to change,
Because he needed Harold to be just like himself.
But Sam the butterfly didn't understand was,
Harold was not a butterfly.
Harold was Harold,
And he was a snail.
Never in 100 million years would a snail be a butterfly.
They were completely different.
They had different thoughts,
Different traits,
They were physically different,
Mentally different.
To look at them,
Obviously,
They were very,
Very different,
But yet Sam,
Being so intellectual,
So smart,
So left-brained,
So logical,
So on top of his game,
Could not see or understand that people,
Or in this case,
Snails,
Could not be exactly like him.
This made Sam so unhappy at times,
To the point where he thought about not being friends with Harold anymore.
He was unhappy any time he met any creature that couldn't,
That wouldn't,
That automatically didn't act or think or behave just like himself.
Because in Sam's eyes,
Everything he did was working.
Everything,
The way that he did it worked,
How he did it worked,
Who he was,
Was wonderful.
He worked diligently to better himself all the time,
And yet he kept meeting other creatures or other butterflies that were so different to him,
He couldn't understand why they wouldn't conform.
This brought him so much grief.
He would lay in bed at night thinking about all of the problems or imperfections these other friends of his had,
And how silly they were to not just do it like he said,
Or to think like he thought,
Or to be who he was.
They were just silly,
They were annoying,
They were obviously ignorant.
What Sam didn't realize was he was causing his own pain.
Sam didn't see that he was stubborn,
He didn't see that he was closed-minded,
Sam didn't see that he wasn't flexible,
Sam didn't even see that he wasn't an understanding butterfly.
Sam just saw everyone else's differences as being inadequate,
But because of this Sam's reality was a painful one.
He didn't feel happy very often,
He didn't have moments in his day where he just felt at peace or joy for no reason.
Sam was stuck,
He was rigid,
He was harsh.
Sam had created a world that made him very,
Very unhappy.
Harold,
His friend,
Could see this but couldn't talk to Sam because Sam wouldn't listen.
Harold had a lot of qualities that Sam could have done with.
Harold was very understanding,
He was so easy-going.
Other people's opinions and points of view were just theirs at the end of the day.
It didn't mean he had to absorb it or change or be that that they wished he would be.
He just let it fall off his shoulders and he just kept being Harold because he liked being Harold.
He liked who he was,
He was comfortable with who he was and because he was comfortable with who he was,
He was comfortable with Sam being who he was and all of his other friends being who they were.
He didn't feel the need to change anyone,
In fact,
Harold,
The snail,
Enjoyed everyone's differences and because he was easy-going,
He was very flexible.
It wasn't a big deal if Sam wanted to do it a certain way.
He would go along with it if he felt like it but if he didn't,
Then he would just let Sam do his thing and Harold would make sure to put himself first and do it the way he wanted to but if it wasn't a big deal for Harold,
He would be flexible.
No problem because Harold liked who he was,
He liked all of his different characteristics and traits.
He found it so much easier to like others.
Harold,
The snail,
Didn't think he was perfect,
He thought.
He was perfectly brilliant as Harold but he didn't see himself as this perfect,
Perfect snail that was better than anything else.
He just knew he was perfectly himself and that made him love Sam.
He loved how different Sam was,
That's why he was friends with Sam,
He loved the different traits in all of his friends.
Harold was a very open-minded,
Easy-going,
Flexible,
Understanding snail and his reality was very different to Sam's.
Harold was most of the time a very happy snail.
He was happy because things didn't bug him so much,
He didn't let them bug him so much.
He was happy because the world brought interesting situations to him every day and he chose to see them in a positive light.
Harold found joy in all sorts of things,
He didn't get heated or stressed,
He didn't get upset or stuck on something.
He was so easy-going that his life,
His days,
His world was a very different place than Sam's the butterfly.
And yet,
They were together most of the time.
They played together,
They did things together,
They interacted with other creatures together.
And yet,
Harold's world was a happy place and Sam the butterfly was pretty much miserable all of the time.
Could Sam the butterfly change?
Yes,
Of course.
Could Harold change?
Yes,
If he wanted to,
Of course.
But Harold didn't feel the need to change.
Yet Sam the butterfly spent most of his time trying to change Harold or anyone else in his life,
Completely misunderstanding the point.
Because if Sam wasn't happy,
Maybe he should be changing himself.
Because if you try and change everyone around you,
Then you're going to be doing that for the rest of your life.
Hopefully,
One day,
Sam will figure that out for himself.
THE END
