Dear Reader:

I realized one night when I was tossing and turning that my ‘play by play’ memories of things from the past…people, experiences, and especially comments (both to and from me) still have the power to unsettle me months…even years… after the original occurrence.

Even though I know this is ridiculous…I should be able to delete these memories from the past once and for all…they, somehow, still manage to reappear at the most inopportune times. Why?

I suspect because I never let them go. I  still have them because I never brought closure to the experience or event.

While watching this beautiful butterfly (title photo) in my garden yesterday I remembered a comment I once heard or read about butterflies.

“We all need hope for transformation. Just as a butterfly never returns as a chrysalis, neither should we  believers return to living in the past…in an earlier stage of our spiritual development.”

We are not now who we were then. God makes sure of this as He calls us each day to follow His example in our daily lives. The past is over…the chrysalis gone…we now must fly higher each day in our quest for spiritual fulfillment.

We aren’t  meant to wallow in the past, a lesson in futility …rather we are to turn to God for our future direction. We can’t un-do what we did or who we were in our earlier lives…but we can, each day, become closer to the person God created in His image.

We live with hope and one of the most important hopes is the ‘Hope of Transformation.’ The old has passed away…the new has come. Each day the ‘new returns’ which means everyday we have the opportunity to change our habits, attitudes and gestures to help our fellow man.

Forget the latest sleeping pill on the market….let’s formally close the door on the past and open all our windows to the light of the present and future pouring in …waiting for us to wake up, arise, and change other lives in the making.

So until tomorrow…

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday was overcast and gratefully cooler…Jeff arrived early morning and we got a few extra things done outside and around the yard… as usual the cut grass aroma lingered long after his departure….my favorite freeze-frame day….beauty in sight and scent.