This is actually a long standing gratitude attitude. I'm grateful for leaves that dance along the ground as the wind propels them. It's a weird thing to be grateful for but it makes me grateful because it helps me to be in tune to other small acts of nature. Things I might miss because I'm too busy and too focused on the bigger, and perhaps more insignificant, things. Have you ever watched the leaves dance along the ground? They swirl here and there, to and fro, and are dancing to the tune the wind creates. It's really quite lovely and for this girl it makes my heart well up in gratitude. What about you? What small act of nature makes you grateful?
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.
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