There is a young lady who works for an organization I am involved in who I have recently come to discover is a very talented writer (although she refuses still to believe it.)
Her name is Patricia Martinez and I’ve asked her if I can include some of her work on my blog, which she has graciously allowed me to do. I hope you enjoy it and will join me in encouraging her to write more and hone the gift she has been given.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:44-48 ESV
The Transformation
Our experience confirms what the elders and wise ones of all times have said – that we live in a constant state of change. Modern science tells us the world consists of patterns of unceasing transformation of energy and matter. We observe these changes in ourselves and in those we know and care for: changes of physical growth, the learning of muscular skills, emotional development, acquisition of knowledge, conformance to the changing expectations of our culture, becoming ill, becoming healed. We grow up. . . we grow old. . . but we always grow.
Our lives appear to unfold in multiple inter-weavings of cycles of change at many levels. We see certain of these basic transitions – marriage and divorce, illness and accidents, births and deaths – as “life-changing” events.
When our very concept of reality and our self-concept change, we speak of personal, or self, transformation. This kind of experience changes the way we feel about the world – our emotional attitude of basic trust or mistrust, faith or doubt, acceptance or rejection – and changes our feelings about ourselves, our self-acceptance, self-esteem, self-love.
Whatever our definition of personality or of self may be, it is clear that as self-concepts, self-feelings, and self-images change, the personality changes, too. We feel and sense ourselves to be different persons.
With the help of God’s teachings we are able to truly transform. This reminds me of the faithful caterpillar. The caterpillar waits until it is time to create its own cocoon. While in that cocoon I can just imagine the struggles, the loneliness the caterpillar must feel.The longing for a friend or person to help make the process a little easier. But if that cocoon is at all disturbed or the process is at all altered the butterfly will emerge and be unable to take flight. The proper changes need to happen in order for that caterpillar to be created into a beautiful butterfly. Only by the grace of God am I able to spread my wings and fly with such grace and pride.
Butterfly Wishes
Yesterday a butterfly
Came floating gently through the sky.
He soared up through the atmosphere
Then drifted close enough to hear.
I said, “I’d love to fly with you
And sail around the way you do.
It looks like it would be such fun
To fly up toward the summer sun.
But I have not your graceful charm.
I haven’t wings, just these two arms.
I’ve been designed to walk around.
My human feet must touch the ground.
Then magically he spoke to me
and told me what his wish would be.
He said, “What I’d love most to do
Is walk upon God’s Earth with you,
To squish it’s mud between my toes
Or touch my finger to my nose.
I’d love just once to walk around
With human feet to touch the ground,
But I have not two legs that swing,
I haven’t arms, just these two wings.”
And so we went our separate ways
In wonder and surprise.
For we’d both seen God’s precious gifts
Through someone else’s eyes
By Patricia Martinez
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Peter, you are right; Patricia is most talented.
Patricia, some writers are good because they have a wide vocabulary. Some are good because they have an incredible ability to construct sentences. Some are good because they have unusual insights and can communicate them clearly. Some are good because the reader feels they are not looking at words but hearing the writer speak to them.
You are excellent because you have all these attributes. As you say in your poem, you are not a butterfly but you have seen creation from a different perspective. Keep looking through the eyes of others and, in consequence, speak for those who have no voice.
I thank everyone for all of the kind words. I have always been very modest in regards to my words so this is all very new to me. I thank Peter for allowing me to spread my wings and fly…..
Lovely poem with its message so true. We often wish for something we think we want or need, while others covet what we do have.