On Butterflies and Significance

In most Indian films you know something life altering is going to happen if there is lightning. There's a lot of lightning and thunderstorms today and if this was an Indian film, something life shattering would definitely be happening right now. Of course life doesn't work that way. We have ups and downs, rights and lefts, usually very few "point of no returns." Most real significant moments in life accumulate over time. They take years to develop and sometimes a moment to realize. We tend to focus on these moments and give them great importance. They are realizations, wake up calls, signs from God, whatever you would like to call them. I don't believe there are switches that change you for good, I think changes accumulate and build up over time. This accumulation tips you to a point of no return... Without the accumulation there would be no tip... so is the tip significant, or is it the slow buildup. Why do we focus on that one moment?

I think we all want to be "better." Better people, better siblings, better spouses, better employees... whatever it may be, just better. There's a myth or a hope that makes us want to believe there will be some random point in time, when we'll be struck, not by lightning, but by a higher power to give us the strength or inspiration to be better. We've all heard the stories of people that had their awakening call one day while doing some seemingly mundane task, and their life is changed thereafter. I think we wait for a moment like this to give us a reason to change, give us hope to be significant. Significance, like most things, is a relative term. We want to change the world, but we feel we can't make an impact from our small house in our small city. The truth is we don't know how far our actions reach. You can just smile at someone at your local coffee shop and change the course of their day, maybe even their life. Smiling at someone doesn't seem very significant to me :)

What do they say about butterflies and hurricanes again?