You've probably heard of the Butterfly Effect, that the flapping of one butterfly on one side of the world can impact the weather on the other side.  What if our thoughts could have the same effect?

So I conducted an experiment from which I'll never know the results.  I imagined a woman in Somalia who had just been beaten by an unknown man holding her at gunpoint.  She's thin, she's sobbing.  Her husband is dead; her children forced to watch the violence against her.  I focused on her face, sending her hope from afar.  You are not alone.  You will have a better life.  Be strong.

Did she look up at my imagined words?  Is she still alive?  All over the world, there are women--and men--who feel hopeless.  Certainly we need to "do" something.  In addition, I propose that we need to "think" something. 

After all, who knows what humanity will understand in two hundred years about the power of our minds to bring about change.  Back in 1972, when the physicist Edward Lorenz was stumped for a title to his speech in front of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Philip Merilees provided this title:  "Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?"  Chaos theory and Lorenz would say yes.

If everything is energy, on a subatomic level, how can thoughts be any different than beat of gossamer wings?  We all know about the power of small changes.  I propose, though I can't prove it, that a few words strung together might create the flap needed to save a life.  The world is truly a mysterious place, and that's what gives me hope.

Your Mid-Week Mantra for the week is:  "Let me be an instrument of hope for those who are hopeless."~Bliss Goldstein

And if you can imagine a stranger and send her a message on the wings of a butterfly, all the better.