Faith in the Future

It has been a beautiful summer filled with family time at my home and at a cottage we rent every summer for a week, celebrating several August birthdays, visiting a couple of Folklorama pavilions,  time at the beach, and sharing my story with a seniors day club.  Perhaps my reluctance to write my August blog post has to do with the fact that summer is on its way out and I want it to last longer.  

My daughter and I recently spent a day at The Leaf, a spectacular indoor horticultural attraction at Assiniboine Park, here in Winnipeg. I was especially looking forward to the Butterfly Garden which had been closed for a while. I was not disappointed! The sign at the entrance (below) seemed particularly appropriate for my mood of not looking forward to change--the seasonal kind, but also the personal!

 

I was reminded of a time at the cottage when I watched a butterfly work its way through a chrysalis. It was awesome! I was captivated by the beauty of its transformation. It did not occur to me that this butterfly might live for a year at the most, its main focus being that of finding a mate and laying eggs.  Since  becoming an octogenarian I have been more aware of the brevity of life.

 

Winnipeg Free Press Columnist, Rebecca Chambers asks the question: "What would it mean to speak our fears out loud? What is the role of people with a megaphone or microphone, people with ink and printing presses and web domains, when the dread creeps up on us and the voices of the past reach our ears with whispered and urgent warnings of how fragile we are, how quickly things can change, and how persistent the evil and neglect of this world is?"