Do me a favour and leave the butterflies in nature. Get them out of your relationships.
Butterflies are charming and beautiful and free, that is true, but they are responsible, through no fault of their own, for one of the most lethal metaphors available — one that condemns a relationship to ruin from the moment it begins.
The insane thrill, the nagging longing for the beloved's presence, the conversations that stretch for hours into the night, and above all the inability to take your hands off one another. All of these have their place, but they are only a possible introduction to a relationship. They are not the relationship itself.
I would go further and claim that butterflies are emphatically not a necessary condition for a long, loving, beneficial and durable bond.
I will not labour the danger of addiction to butterflies, but here is one point for thought.
One of the desirable outcomes of a good relationship is that over time, you love yourself more and more.
Not only your partner. You. The person you are becoming.
If the relationship supplies what a relationship is supposed to supply, you become a more optimistic person, more curious, more balanced — and stronger. The kind who can withstand necessary frustrations and hold realistic expectations.
That is a usable test, and it is far better than the butterflies, because it is available after the hormones have finished and it points at something that actually matters.
So I would say I do not want to shatter your illusions, but that would be a lie. I do rather want to.