I sat at my writing desk early this morning, the house quiet, my favorite time of day, and as I reached for my new favorite coffee cup, decorated with butterflies and flowers, I noticed the shape of the handle – a heart, but only half a heart.
From the adjoining room, the family room, the other half of my heart, my wife of 50 years married, surrounded by family, left for heaven having succumbed to cancer just over a year ago.
I’ve written a great deal since about life, and love, and loss, in fact I now have a book entitled “Breathe – Inspiration for life’s little moments.” The first – and only – copy of that book was likewise lying there on the corner of my desk.
It’s all sad and yet in these little moments of the early morning there is something else too.
Behind my butterfly coffee cup were drawings by my five-year-old granddaughter who loves life. She never draws a picture but what the stick-figure people are uproariously happy. The sun is happy. If she had drawn butterflies, they would be happy too.
Just yesterday, again early morning, at our place of business which two years ago was destroyed by fire, that same granddaughter whispered to her mother “Mom! Look!”
She and her mother every morning, early in the morning, go to the place where so many happy memories were made by our family. Though the building which housed the business is gone, fishermen still come, happy that someone is there to open for them the gate.
My granddaughter had caught sight of a most beautiful butterfly flitting about among the flowers that now grace the shoreline where not long ago dust rose from the ashes as bulldozers pulverized what remained of fifty years accumulation of treasures lost to the roaring flames.
Her mother captured but one photo of the beautifully crafted-in-color creature as it winged away heavenward and was gone.
And this morning, as I prepared for another day, I stopped by the window where sits my reminder that in spite of the loss that inevitably accompanies life and love, there are as many opportunities yet to live and to love as there are innumerable fragrances in flowers, as there are intricate beauties called butterflies.
Today I choose joy.
