I'm not good at endings. I don't generally appreciate or feel grateful when something I love ends, whether that is a relationship, TV show, movie, or book. In the past few years I have slowly been learning to see the good in endings and see that not all things come to a permanent end, perhaps just a temporary one. For example, each time I see my bestie Jodi the time seems too short and it comes to a temporary end. It makes me feel a little grumpy on the inside. But the past couple of years I have decided to quit being grumpy on the inside and make the most of the time we do get, to be grateful for that time and make it about quality instead of quantity. And then I choose to be grateful that when our time comes to an end it is temporary because we have been friends for 33 years so I know there will be a next time. When a good book ends I am learning to quit being grumpy about it and be grateful for the story I was able to read. You get the idea. I'm choosing to look at endings differently in order to have a Gratitude Attitude.
There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.
I love you and wish we could see each other more!
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