Thanksgiving Origami Decorations & the Symbolism of Butterflies - Art Every Day Month - Day 21

For Thanksgiving, I decorated the windows with stars and butterflies made from translucent paper.

The colors used were brown, orange, gold, yellow, and red. Some of the patterns had only a single color, while others had a combination of them. The window in the picture above is in the dining room. When we eat dinner in the mid-afternoon it will be light outside so the patterns of the stars will show. 

Less than an hour and a half later, it will be dark outside. The candles will be lit in all the windows throughout the home (one is shown in the right side of the picture - there are actually 3 candles for this set of windows), so as everyone leaves, most of the lights in the home are turned off and they will see candlelights in each of the windows.

That odd-looking butterfly on the right (the orange one with brown body) is my first attempt at making one. Although I consider it a mistake, I ended up using it anyways since I didn't have another butterfly that looked like it fit with this combination of window decorations.

Sometimes overlooking mistakes has to be okay. There truly are greater and more important issues in the world.

I still would like to do a couple more stars for this window before Thursday in gold, yellow, and red. The window shown above is in the family room where Sophia, Olivia, and their cousins play on Thanksgiving.

The window above looks out over the backyard. It also is in the family room near where Olivia works on her puzzles.

Butterflies may seem like an unusual decoration at Thanksgiving. However, this year it is quite fitting. It will be the first one without my dad joining us for the meal.

Because he is now in a wheelchair and requires quite a bit of assistance with meals and personal needs due to being in the late stages of Alzheimer's Disease, he will be at the nursing home/care center while we have the Thanksgiving meal.

Like the butterfly, who represents change and transformation, this is one of many changes and adaptations that have had to be made over the past year, particularly in the last couple of months. 

According to a website about animal symbolism, "Herein lies the deepest symbolic lesson of the butterfly. She asks us to accept the changes in our lives as casually as she does. The butterfly unquestioningly embraces the chances of her environment and her body.

"This unwavering acceptance of her metamorphosis is also symbolic of faith. Here the butterfly beckons us to keep our faith as we undergo transitions in our lives. She understands that our toiling, fretting and anger are useless against the turning tides of nature – she asks us to recognize the same.

"To take this analogy a step further, we can look again to the grace and eloquence of the butterfly and realize that our journey is our only guarantee. Our responsibility to make our way in faith, accept the change that comes, and emerge from our transitions as brilliantly as the butterfly."