Butterfly's Wing Flap

Forgiveness is possible; annihilation is not. An action, once performed, cannot be erased; it only gives birth to a new action. Did we think we could undo our wrong actions with mere words? Our actions move forward. And only our actions… Words, on the other hand, are pleasant or burning in the moment, but they are fleeting echoes. Even when wrong actions are replaced with right ones, something has already moved forward in time. It has begun to move along with many other things moving forward from others. And together, they have already established a new order that cannot be undone. By changing, we only manage to mitigate the damage, and that’s all.

And of course, it’s always good to mitigate the damage, no matter where you start.

And forgiveness lies in the place where we decide to turn away from harm and stand by that decision.

Still, nothing will ever be the same again. The new order, established in a way that cannot be reversed, demands this. It is an order where everyone’s actions intersect and clash; an indescribable, incomprehensible, vast system… This is why life must be taken seriously. A part of this vast system, to which our contribution is inevitable, always touches us; we are renewed by the system, and we renew the system. To call what happens to us "the will of God” would be misleading in this case. Humans are too small to determine the will of God; just as they are too small to understand how they are part of a forest while living “free and independent like a tree.”

If we are unwilling to turn away from harm, we will experience and cause the same things again. We will create new actions moving forward, but they will relate to repetition and harm—harm that will inevitably touch us in some way. Neither our solitude nor our limited freedom will remain! If the whole is falling apart, it is because the parts are breaking, and intervention in those parts has not been timely.

Humans need to think more simply. For instance, they should say, “This is the will of me.” The will of their free will, to which they are enslaved… Or even the will of their pleasure… And now we must ask: Can forgiveness be a matter of pleasure?

“On the threshold between right and wrong

...

You chose this

&

I am the trouble I brought upon myself

...

I chose this.”

Humans are helplessly tossed about within this system, whose boundaries they cannot comprehend. The good things that happen to them are their choices, while the bad things are misfortunes. For some reason, the part of the system that touches us only gains meaning when good things happen to us. Yet the flutter of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the world can cause a storm on the other. This is why life must be taken seriously.

“Never underestimate a nail. A nail saves a horseshoe, a horseshoe saves a horse, a horse saves a commander, a commander saves an army, and an army saves an entire country.” Sometimes the voice of one person with a conscience is worth thousands of those without.

Do you insist on calling it the will of God? Then let it be the will of my conscience. Conscience is the image of the God that permeates you. You guide your conscience. With your free will(!), you sometimes kill it and then enjoy yourself. There’s something you don’t understand. You think your will is immortal and your conscience is mortal. But it’s the opposite. When you kill your conscience once, it becomes the shadow that rises again and never leaves your will alone. Each time you kill it, it stands before you with an even greater desire for revenge. The moment you stop turning your back on your conscience, your will strengthens; the more you turn your back on your conscience, the more you lose your will. Then you call the bad things that happen to you misfortune and the bad things that happen to others the will of God. But it’s the opposite. No other outcome could be expected; no fair judgment could be expected from someone who has killed their conscience.

Even our smallest judgments are the flutter of a butterfly’s wings; we must remember this.

Humans will always be helplessly tossed about within this system, whose boundaries they can never comprehend. However, even this helplessness can never be an excuse for their wrongdoings. What can be expected of humans is not that they never make mistakes; the only thing they can do is accept and confess their mistakes and not turn them into pleasure. Responsibility is a respectful attitude, and respect comes before love. Do you feel full of love but encounter a wall? Then you should look at your own attitude. If your attitude insists on disrespect and lack of conscience, the wall built is ethical; you cannot tear it down. If you’re not willing to risk losing, you cannot win. Thus, the earth becomes an arena for the battle between the ethical and the unethical. And it is hoped that the voice of one person with a conscience will be worth thousands of those without. If your attitude encounters a wall despite no disrespect or lack of conscience, let it go; everything is on its own path. Unless someone is willing to give a chance to the millions of possibilities in the universe, you cannot change anything for anyone. Action is everything, but you must also know when to stop. Who knows, maybe when you stop, the flow changes for everyone! It definitely does.

Sometimes humans must wait for reasons beyond themselves to come to an end. Waiting often requires patience; yet waiting has an even greater meaning: stepping back for what is next in line. Instead of waiting, people often pretend to be strong. Instead of pretending to be strong, we should have been confessors. We should have faced the value we give ourselves but deny to everything else. Instead of facing it, people want to resemble one another; they want not to see, not to hear, not to know. The world is free for only themselves, only a gift to themselves. The world is superior for only themselves. And then? There is no “then.” Human power is tied to the “moment”; there is no past or future. There is only one thing left: the God who pervades you. If you’ve kept it alive, good for you; if not, so be it!

(Butterfly's Wing Flap)