Butterfly Effect

 Have you heard of the Butterfly effect?


"Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?"


Perhaps these quotes will be more familiar:

The straw that broke the camel's back.

 How about the cartoon where the cat runs into the wall and cracks appear then the mouse blows on the cat and he shatters?

Turning on a dime.

A pivotal point in the story. 

Small apparently inconsequential acts that have far reaching and massive impact.  Stop and think for just a moment.  Think about a time when you made a decision that altered the course of your life.  Then think of the events just proceeding that decision.  Do you have it in mind?

Living is made up of a mesh of small events, minute-to-minute journal recording is super annoying and very revealing.  I had a boss that required me to write every 15 minutes what I was doing.  I learned from this experience that many, many small seemingly inconsequential tasks strung together to create my day's work.  Why is this significant?  It is the key as to why a small event can invoke massive change.  All life is made up of small events, like a digital picture made up of tiny pixels each doing their part to form an over all picture.  One of the real life experiences that I had was a teacher in 7th grade telling me I was terrible at art.  Yup, several of my projects did not turn out up to her standards.  Everything we did was new to me, I was just learning.  She expected finished products and compared me to others in the class.  I allowed this woman's single comment to define myself for years.  Another example, I struggled with the belief that my mother had narcissistic behaviors.  I kept believing that if I was a better daughter all would be well.  Then I read over at upsi's blog about a tiny smile that comes to a narcissistic person as they anticipate the havoc they are about to wreck.  I thought, "No, not my mother.  She doesn't realize what she does is hurtful."  But that mustard seed of thought was planted.  I found myself watching my mother at the next family gathering.  The conversation was leading to a moment in time that my mother usually says something thoughtless and hurtful.  BAM there it was.  My mother smiled a tiny little smile just before she zapped one of my siblings with a nasty comment.  My mind exploded.  The butterfly had being flapping its wings in Brazil all along, I just hadn't paid attention.  That single smile became a game changer.  A piece of straw, a tiny smile, flapping of a butterfly's wings and my world shifts and changes.  It took computers to recreate the butterfly effect in an observable way but people live by it every day.  I believe in butterflies and their effect on my world.  I also believe those butterflies give me great opportunities to change the direction of my life everyday.