Men and The Goddess

A little something different from Rosmary for this week. A poem for you!

BUTTERFLY

A butterfly flits back and forth
Then back and forth again
Before my face
And perches gracefully on the grass at my feet.
It says, “I am the symbol of change. Accept me.”
“That’s funny,” I think.
I had just been thinking about what the future would bring.

Another butterfly, smaller than the first,
Flits by my face and settles on the grass at my feet.
“After each change comes the next one,” she says.
“Nothing is static. Nothing stays the same. The only constant is change.”
“OK, I get it,” I think.

A squirrel joins us, posing on the fence post to look at me and says, “Prepare.”
Now I’m wondering if all of Nature is conspiring to get a message to me.
Have I wondered overlong about the future and forgotten to be fully present in this moment now?
Am I somehow blocking the changes to come by not preparing today for whatever tomorrow brings because I refuse to focus on today?
Am I lost in concern for a moment that hasn’t happened yet while missing the gift of the moment at hand?

I start to walk back into the house
And the third butterfly appears, identical in markings to the other two but tinier than they.
She says to me,
“It is not mere change that we represent.
It is TRANSFORMATION.
Right now, right here, IN YOU.
Be blessed and IN-JOY.”
I get the message.

©Rosemary Bredeson
September 19, 2007