The Butterfly Effect/Photography

There is a theory that came into popularity some 50 years ago when Edward Lorenz, a meteorology professor at MIT, was simulating weather patterns in a computer. He left his office for a cup of coffee and when he returned he found a result that would change the course of science.

The computer program was based on variables such as temperature and wind speed with values that could be graphed over time. When he did a repeat simulation from earlier that day he rounded off one variable ever so slightly and, to his surprise, discovered the tiny alteration drastically changed the entire pattern produced by his program over 2 months of simulations for weather patterns.

‘What has all this to do with butterflies?’ you may be asking.

Simply stated: Small changes can have large consequences. This idea became known as the “butterfly effect” after Lorenz suggested the flap of a butterfly’s wings might ultimately cause a tornado. This effect, also known as ‘sensitive dependence on initial conditions’ has a profound corollary: forecasting the future can be nearly impossible. We certainly know how fickle weather predictions can be!

Lorenz’s insight turned into the founding principle of chaos theory which expanded into fields as diverse as meteorology, geology and biology. It changed everything once thought predictable in the “clockwork universe” we believed existed.

Such a profound insightful awareness for we as humans, and yet…nature seems to be completely aware of the connectedness of the All That Is. Each living organism is existing in and of itself and yet still only a small part of the greater organism of the living Earth. This Earth only a tiny speck in the macrocosm of infinite space and time…

Why shouldn’t it make sense, then, that something so minute as the flap of a butterfly’s wings could alter any portion of existence, great or small?

What I do know is that when I am surrounded by these magnificent creatures, when I feel the air that flows around their flight and hear the faint flutter of their water color wings, my own heart soon slows, finding its rhythm there on the air with them.

No greater peace have I found than in the presence of these winged magicians.

As to the butterfly effect, I believe that everything we do, every choice we make, affects the whole of our own world and the world at large. But instead of this idea paralyzing us, we should feel grateful for the opportunity to use such a gift to bring about great and wonderful change to our own lives as well as to all of existence.

Be beautiful. Allow your heart to beat in time with the natural world. Follow the voice of your conscience-your ‘con science’. For there is nothing known to man that was not first a dream. Just be sure all your dreams work for the good of the all.