Holistic Wellness & Expression w/ Terah Kelleher

Happy Mother's Day, Momma aka . Love you so much!

Weeks ago, I noticed a wounded butterfly in the grass who couldn't fly. I moved it out of the main walking path. I left it there, hoping for the best, but as I entered my door and stood in my kitchen, I couldn't get the little one out of my mind. My heart ached, wondering if it would be ok and if I could do anything else to help. I searched the internet and learned that if their wings are slightly uneven, they can't fly so I'd need to make the other wing even. Imagine me with small nail scissors about to clip a small piece of wing from the other side of an already ailing butterfly! The reputable sourced article assured me that it's like cutting our human hair and wouldn't hurt the winged being. I did it and it still couldn't fly, even though it kept trying. Tears welled up in my eyes, my shoulders collapsed, head fell, and I cried. My jaw going from tense to slack, my breath moving my chest. With blurry eyes, I gazed out of my window, hearing the chirping of birds and the rustling of tree leaves.

Grief is a nuanced and layered aspect of life. It can carry with it rage, wonder, sadness, reverence, and numerous other things. In my 20's and 30's, I mourned but I pushed a lot of it away, feeling slightly numb to it. When losing a loved one, it can be paired with other losses, as if they are all linked. Standing there with my friend, the butterfly, I felt those links and I let myself shed cleansing tears, the kind that bring an exhale, which loosens the jaw and temples.

When the tears cleared, I went walking in the park looking for milkweed or any other plant on the list for the butterfly to eat. I soaked a cotton ball with sugar water and cut a strawberry instead, but it wouldn't eat. Placing the butterfly on my finger, it jumped to the window screen and stayed there, with food nearby just in case it decided to eat, feeling a level of hope. Eventually, I searched the internet for butterfly farms that may help wounded butterflies and messaged them.

At work, the next day, I heard back from them and they said yes, they may be able to help the butterfly. With a full day of clients, I couldn't leave but my niece, Zoe, took the butterfly to All-A-Flutter Farms LLC in High Point and they sent me a message later: "the swallowtail butterfly is in our care. There’s no obvious/visual injury, but it is injured. Even though the wings are chipped it should still be able to fly (which indicates a injury that isn’t visible). Perhaps it was bitten by a spider or other predator. It has been eating and beginning to move around a bit more. We will keep it in a safe enclosure and provide food for as long as it survives."

A dear friend of mine passed recently, her ailing body ready to pass to the next world. We searched for ways to mend her wings...

Since having the experience with this butterfly, I have seen numerous other butterflies, the same kind, the yellow, black, and blue swallowtail, flying free. I smile and say hello.

From my Wellness Librarian Blog: https://www.terahhwe.com/post/saving-a-butterfly

The upper back is the seat of our heart and lungs. We can rush through our day on our devices and doing our repetitive actions, which can be necessary. But have you wondered how to relieve your upper body tension at home? This workshop will teach you.

I've been a massage and body work therapist since 2003 and love teaching others how to relieve tension inside and outside of the massage room by using my other skill sets of Somatic Experiencing, yoga, Pilates, creative writing teacher, and Health Science major.

This workshop mindfully takes you through a sequence similar to a flow of a massage. We will use our breath, movement, massage tools, yoga props, creative writing, and stillness to carve out a space for yourself to breathe and relieve tension.

Location: Four Farms Place
Date: Tuesday, April 21
Time: 6 to 7:30 pm
Cost: $35
Link in Bio.

Scotland 2025 Reflections 2: Storytelling with Jane Mather. Another goal of my retreat was to honor storytelling and how important it is as we grow older. I'm also reflecting on aging in a youth crazed world and went to learn more about the Scottish folklore of the Cailleach, a Gaelic term for crone or old woman. More on that later but for now, I want to give credit where credit is due of how I met Jane Mather. When I searched for Scottish folklore storytellers who have knowledge of the Cailleach, Scott Richardson-Reid The Cailleach's Herbarium , came up and I messaged him to see his closeness to Edinburgh, Scotland and if he did events like I was going to put on. He couldn't but he referred me to Jane Mather, who describes herself on Facebook as, "Storyteller, mother, dreamer, nature lover - inspired by wild things, deep time and imagined worlds." We met online to speak to each other and decided that she would be a part of my retreat.

We met on a section of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh in April of 2025. Both of us seem to maneuver in the world with one foot in the mystical/magical world and the other in the practical world. Her magical tour around Edinburgh showed me the hidden gems within the city. I loved seeing natural and green spaces peek out of such an industrialized city, including gardens, wells, and closes (narrow passageways developed during the medieval period).

She told me a wonderful story that I had on video but somehow when I switched my phone, it got lost. I'm still digging for it and will add it to this blog post when I find it. In Jane, I met a kindred spirit, who loves to tell stories, and she also loves to walk in nature, nurturing it and trying to protect it. For example, she knows of the holy or sacred wells in various locations in Scotland and tends to some of them. These locations hold the history of indigenous practices, which honored nature. Industrialization and colonization affected these locations greatly but that is a whole other post!

Thank you Jane for such a magical tour around Edinburgh! I posted this on my Wellness Librarian Blog if you wanted to see my other posts: https://www.terahhwe.com/blog