Ambassadors of Change

My yard and gardens have been a source of great joy and peace during the past several months. Clinical evidence shows that time spent in nature can reduce stress. And even while my gardens are cultivated, planned, and planted for the most part, they are surely driven by forces of nature. Some of those forces are things we may never completely understand, but one of the constants seems to be change.

Do you suppose the caterpillar ever imagined flying? Sometimes a thing is only impossible until you do it!

As the temperatures drop and the vines wither, I find myself staring into the formerly green spaces and reminiscing about the days when the morning glories were literally buzzing and humming as fuzzy and feathered pollinators visited each blossom. Among the winged folks who labored and lingered in my garden, perhaps the most lovely and diverse were the butterflies. I suspect that I saw the last of them for this year flutter by about a week ago.

Every day may not be a good day, but there is good in every day.

What a mighty, if tiny, creature! They often have the power to stop me in my tracks and cause the corners of my mouth to curve upwards. The reaction seems involuntary. Butterflies are a welcome distraction in any day. But alas, it will be some time before we see them again. Seasons change, gardens change, caterpillars change! And of course, we must change too.

Unlike the butterfly, we can choose what we become.

With confidence in the return of the butterflies – nature’s ambassadors of change – I look forward to the predictable and the unexpected changes that await. I’m trying to embrace the change as I look to the foliage’s shifting hues. I am content as I anticipate the abstract and beautiful etchings of frost on the windows and the delicate dusting of white that will, no doubt decorate the trees before too long.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. – Maya Angelou

May we find inspiration in the lesson the butterflies and embrace changes that are coming. And may be exercise our advantage – one butterflies can’t – to choose some of the changes we invite into our lives. Change is, after all, inevitable. The question is whether we will be the agent of change or subject to change.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. – Socrates

So let’s celebrate the changing of the seasons as we choose what changes we want to invite into our lives. Build anew we look forward, excited as we imagine what new possibilities await us. And if any of these photographs make you feel inspired, print them out and post them on your fridge or mirror! #Change4Good!