Thus spake the Butterfly....

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.  

~Nathaniel Hawthorne

It came to Shalini while we were strolling on the white sands of Coral Island in the Pacific. The powdery white sand, the azure blue waters, the cool breeze and the sound of the rolling waves on the coral reef were enough to transcend one to a dream world. Her pursuit of finding the most beautiful shells to carry home as memorabilia led her to one of the simplest yet beautiful creations of God-the Butterfly shell.  (Scientific name: Donax variabilis, Common name: Coquina)

She ran to show us the shell, while we stood around it admiring its beauty, I couldn’t but notice the similarity it had with the butterfly.Holding it against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean, I wished if it could speak to me.

If it could speak to me, may be it would have spake thus… 

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, 

"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."  
~Hans Christian Anderson

I do not know whether I was then a man 

dreaming I was a butterfly, 

or whether I am now a butterfly 

dreaming I am a man.  

~Chuang Tzu