Do you believe in signs? To be completely honest, I’m not sure whether or not I do. However, I couldn’t help notice the special moment when a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly landed on an orange day lily one day when I was walking Max. I captured that special moment in the photo below.
Max and I were on our normal daily walk when this beautiful Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (something I looked up later) landed on an orange day lily directly next to me. I do mean, literally, directly next to me. I could have reached out and touched the delightful creature. I thought “wow that’s really cool”, and just kept walking. After a few steps I stopped in my tracks. My heart told me to take a second and just realize the uniqueness of this moment. I slowly made my way back to the flower, and positioned my phone and snapped a few photos. The butterfly flew away just seconds after the photo above was taken.
This moment occurred July 21. Just 5 days later, on July 26, I was inspired to start up this blog again after 4 years. Here is a quote from my about page, written on July 26:
This blog began its life with another name, My Walk in the Woods. As I have changed over the past few years, this blog, which has been dormant for some time, needs to be revived with a new name and a new look. Welcome to The Wholistic Hiker, where I combine my love of hiking with holistic living and my spiritual journey through life
Tamara Hoerner, The Wholistic Hiker
I had all but given up on blogging. After COVID hit 2 years ago, I decided to focus on taking care of me and my family. I turned all three of my blogs “private”, only my better half stopping me from deleting them completely. I even deleted my facebook pages. This blog, which, at the time, was My Walk in the Woods, had been dormant for at least 4 years. My other 2 blogs have been dormant for 2 years (These 2 remain dormant and private).
So why now? Why start up this blog after so much time? Was the butterfly and the day lily a message? I decided to look up the symbolism and find out. Let’s start with the day lily.
Symbolism of the Orange Day Lily
- According to Florgeous.com, an yellow or orange daylily symbolizes joy, love, courage, beauty and devotion. However, a dark orange day lily (such as the one in my photo) can symbolize deep passion.
- Snapblooms.com indicates that due to their balance of red and yellow, orange day lilies symbolize warmth, abundance, prosperity and happiness.
- The lily is seen as a symbol of purity, as stated by petalrepublic.com. However, an orange lily indicates courage and confidence
Symbolism of a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly
As I researched butterfly symbolism, I came across Native American symbolism. In the Native American tradition, butterflies are symbols of joy, love and change. Many tribes believe butterflies were a portrayal of their ancestor’s soul. This was all interesting, but was their a specific meaning to a yellow butterfly, or even a Tiger Swallowtail?
- Yellow and black butterfly, such as the Tiger Swallowtail, symbolizes insight, wisdom, inspiration, vulnerability and inner emotions. “It can be a reminder of the importance of balancing your emotional response with logical thinking.” (source)
- According to millersguild.com, yellow butterflies can mean good feelings about up coming change.
- Yellow butterflies can also indicate the need to be honest about fears regarding change.
Putting it all together
Looking into this experience has been interesting and quite enlightening. I have been facing depression lately, as many people have I’m sure. While closing down my blogs seemed like the correct decision at the time, something seemed to be missing from my life. While I absolutely love taking care of my family, I guess I needed something that was for me, but also helped others.
If I look at the symbolism behind the butterfly and the day lily, I see that I need to embrace a new direction in my life with courage, confidence and passion. I also see that it’s okay if I have doubts and fear about this new direction. Embrace the fear and do it anyway.
Closing thoughts
Am I reading too much into this whole experience? My youngest son, ever the doubter, would say yes, that it was just random chance. Maybe so, but it did get me thinking about my life, my fears and my emotions. My depression has wained and I am happier since restarting this blog.
Was it a sign? I’ll probably never know. What I do know is that life is what we make of it. Happiness is not a destination, but a journey. By restarting this blog, I broke through my safe cocoon and floated out into a scary new world in search of what makes me happy.
3 responses to “The Butterfly and The Day Lily”
So I have been reading Gabby Bernsteins books and she talks about asking for signs. So I thought why not, never tried it. So i said should I do xyz and if i should the sign I am looking for is a butterfly. I am seeing butterflies not in person, but every where. So i think this looking for signs might be okay.
Thank you for that. I really should read some of those books. I do feel in my heart that there is a direct connection between this experience and restarting my blog. My spiritual side would say it was perhaps my spirit guides sending me a message. I do know that I am quite a bit happier, as if I’m headed in the right direction. Thank you for visiting, reading and commenting. 😊 🙏
Oh yeah God send sends us signals, and our intuition also helps, as well as patient to wait and see.