Friend and fellow writer, Coral Beach (Happy Hour in Paradise:
Twelve Years on Beachouse), recently invited me to have lunch at her
beach house in Galveston, and then visit the Rainforest at Moody Gardens. While
there, we also saw a fascinating 3D movie called Flight of the Butterflies, which is an amazing story about the
migration of the Monarch butterfly. That’s Coral with me in the photo at right,
checking out the exhibits in the Rainforest. 
Here we are at left, sporting our fashionable 3D glasses at
the theater. It had been roughly 50 years since I had seen a 3D movie, and,
boy, was I impressed! It felt like I could just reach right out and grab those
butterflies!
We had a wonderful time observing nature’s gifts at the
Rainforest, and the theme of the movie turned out to be a perfect fit for my
cancer journey.
Many cultures throughout the world honor the butterfly as a
symbol of transformation because of its amazing metamorphosis—from egg, to
caterpillar, to cocoon, and from cocoon to a magnificent butterfly.
This tiny creature undergoes a massive transition; a
profound symbolic lesson for us all, to accept the changes in our lives that we
cannot control. I learned, soon after being diagnosed with breast cancer for
the first time, that anger and resistance are useless against the will of
nature. They are simply a waste of time and energy.
Life is a journey of trials and challenges. How we react to
these twists and turns is the secret to finding joy instead of despair, so we
can emerge from our transition as beautifully as a butterfly.
Thank you, Coral, for
sharing a joyful day in Nature!
