I’ve been thinking a lot about the act of kindness, and how to best give and receive it. Kindness comes in a plethora of sizes and shapes, but as long as it comes from the right place: it’s beautiful. I have always been fascinated by the Butterfly Effect analogy, and how to apply it into my life. I think I may have finally started figuring it out.

I often question why I make calculated decisions.
Does it really matter what I do? Does it really affect anyone?

Then I remember the butterfly flapping its wings,
And the typhoon that is created across the world.

I’ve never been able to wrap my head around the butterfly effect,
Because I cannot understand something that I have not experienced.

But I think that I might be just a bit ignorant.

I’ve been in the drive-thru of a fast food chain
When the cashier tells me that the car in front of me paid for my meal.

She offered me to keep the chain going and pay it forward,
So I did the same for the car behind me.

It felt out of obligation, as I looked at the packed full car of people in that minivan,
But I didn’t want to be the one odd person out.

I will never regret looking in that rear view mirror. 

I watched the flutter of the butterfly in the person who started the chain,
As I watched the mother behind me break down into tears in her broken down car. 

The thing about the butterfly effect
Is that the power lies within what we cannot see.

I didn’t need someone to pay for my seven dollar meal,
But they didn’t know that. And they didn’t need to in order for them to make that decision.

Kindness and having no expectations go hand in hand.

We don’t need to see the mother breaking down in the minivan to know we made a typhoon.
It’s little decisions that we choose to make that may or may not come back to us.

It’s not about recognition, or karma, or feeling like a better person.
It’s choosing to flutter our fragile wings in hopes that someone catches it. 


The entire premise of the butterfly effect is that a little action can cause a big outcome.
No matter the design of those wings. 

Be the butterfly, for you may be able to make a big wave. 

Kara Allen is a CSU Public Relations Assistant and is currently a Senior studying Communications at Minnesota State Mankato. Kara is from Grand Rapids, MN and has grown up loving to write in her free time; finding the hidden idiosyncrasies within herself through the writing. She plans on pursuing a career in Public Affairs for the U.S. Army and continuing on with writing for enjoyment.