Life with Lucy: Life

“Attachment to a hurt arising from a past event

blocks the inflow of hope into our lives.”

~St. John of the Cross

I stumbled upon this quote last week in a book I was reading. It got me thinking. About lots of things. But namely--with Mother’s Day-- it got me thinking about how important it is that we not hang onto past hurts, but rather learn from them and grow from them.

Celebrating Mother's Day without your mom, I imagine, will never be an easy thing. There will always be hurt and sadness. But what was reinforced in me this year is that there is so much hope all around me. In the every day with Lucy. In the small and trivial and mundane. In the joys of life and all the wonders of creation. We are surrounded by it.

I realize that the hurt will always be there--but the attachment to it is not.

Even though my Mom is not here with us anymore, there is life all around us.

And therefore..... hope.

Hope in watching your caterpillars~that went into chrysallis~
become butterflies.

Hope in the nurturing qualities of your daughter, whereby she places one of her animals on watch over the caterpillars when we go out of town...

and whereby she diligently talks to and feeds her butterflies when they are born.

Hope in the life they will have after they are (reluctantly) set free.

Life in all its glory.

The camera went off after the above picture, as Lucy cried and cried. She had just released the last of her butterflies and was quite upset. It gave us opportunity to talk about how the butterflies will now be happier that they are free. Even five year olds have to experience loss, but also learn about hope.

Life is so abundant right under our noses. This woodpecker has been hanging out with us a lot lately. Not sure how good she is for the health of our trees, but she sure is pretty.

Another opportunity to teach about life and loss----but hope too. This little guy ran into our window on our back deck. It was immediately clear that he was hurt.

We talked to him, pet him, nurtured him a bit...

We talked about calling the SPCA to see what we could do to help him. We just felt so badly.

But after about 10 minutes, he stood....deposited a little something on Brian's hand (do you see it below?) and then flew away. Again, tears from Lucy. She doesn't like loss and letting go. But we talked to her about how wonderful it was that with a little love and nurturing, he got better and was free again to fly in our woods and be happy. Hope.