[stylist] Sharinhg one of the Conversations from the Teacher series

Fri Jun 1 13:19:00 UTC 2012

Lynda, what a truly inspiring story about your  daughter.  Thank you for 
sharing that. 

And thank you so much for your kind words on this  piece.  My conversation 
was inspired by a moment observed between my late  husband and one of my 
granddaughters.  She would often ask me about them  and, even at the age of 
almost 3, seemed to understand that Maw couldn't see  them.  So she went to her 
grandfather and I was able to capture this  moment.  When I wrote this 
piece she was near eight years old and I just  slipped that two year old's 
innocence into the words.  

I have had extremely limited vision my entire life but  I was also 
fortunate enough to have two older brothers who shared this with  me though the 
origins of our sight loss were a bit different.  Not only  were they my mentors 
as I grew up but they also helped to make sure that I was  always treated 
like  'just another one of the kids' instead of the blind  little sister or 
cousin or niece.  I was blessed, truly  blessed.

Myrna

In a message dated 6/1/2012 7:57:43 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
llambert at zoominternet.net writes:

This  is an inspired writing, Myrna. There is so much more to a butterfly 
than  just the beauty of them flying about on a spring day in a field os 
bright  flowers.

Here is why I really responded to your attached  work.

The image of the butterfly here brought back a memory for me. It  was 4 1/2 
years ago, and I had just lost most of my sight. I had not yet  had any 
help, 
and did not yet know there was such a thing as any kind of  technologies 
that 
would help me, nor did I yet know of rehabilitation for  the blind. I had 
no 
white cane, and no way of doing just about anything I  had done just a 
couple 
months before.

It was at this very time that  my second daughter, Heidi, was diagnosed 
with 
ovarian cancer. Now, I stood  at her bedside in the IC unit in a Pittsburg
h, 
PA hospital. Her surgery to  remove the tumor that had spread to a stage 3C 
cancer was completed a few  days before. But nothing had gone well, and 
within a couple of days she  was near death. They had put her in an induced 
coma to try to give her  sick lungs the opportunity to begin to heal.
Day after day, it was one step  down after another.

Even though I could not see very much, I was  staying at the hospital day 
and 
night. I could find my way from the  waiting room, to the bathroom, and to 
my 
daughter's room. I slept for  short periods during the night, sitting in a 
chair in the waiting room of  the IC unit. Then, I would walk back to her 
room, to sit by her  bedside.

She was kept in a coma for over 2 weeks. Nurses and doctors  were at her 
side 
or directly outside her room working on the moniters and  computers 
continuously, monitoring her, searching for the right mix of  drugs to help 
her. We waited there in limbo as the days went by. There was  nothing we 
could do but pray and wait. Family members came and went, all  helpless.

One afternoon I sat in the chair at the bottom of her bed  with my eyes 
focused on her laying there with tubes and apparatus all over  her body. 
The 
hospital staff had named Heidi, The Sleeping Princess. On  this afternoon, 
the Sleeping Princess had two unexpected visitors. They  did not come in 
through the door.

As I watched Heidi, two enormous  butterflies were there. They emerged from 
the base of her feet and they  fluttered back and forth, playing with each 
other as butterflies do when  you see them in a field. The two butterflies 
were a deep red crimson and  they were the size of my hand. They were 
bright 
and very large. As I  watched them, it was the most normal scene I could 
ever 
have seen. Heidi's  body was the field over which they were zig-zagging 
back 
and forth over as  they moved towards her head. It seemd like I watched 
them 
for quite  awhile, but I believe it was probably only seconds. It was like 
an 
eternal  moment, when time did not exist, and I had been a witness to  
timelessness.

The butterflies made themselves visable to me. They  gave me new hope for 
my 
daughter. I knew they were the Holy Spirit, made  visable.  I recognized 
that 
the Holy Spirit had come to visit the  Sleeping Princess that afternoon and 
that this would be the afternoon when  Heidi would begin to recover. I was 
assured at that moment when I saw this  vision that my daughter would heal 
and that she had experienced a  miracle.

Today, Heidi remains free of ovarian cancer, even though the  tests done in 
surgery had shown that the cancer cells were throughout her  entire body. 
She 
undergoes tests and scans all the time in Pittsburgh. She  has an entourage 
of doctors who are keeping a close watch on her. She has  side effects from 
her surgery and her long recovery time. Her body  remembers the trauma, and 
her body is still responding to it. Our bodies  carry memories, and those 
memories in the entire body continue to have a  response to the trauma it 
went through.

Heidi is an artist who has  a studio on a mountain top, in the woods of 
Pennsylvania. She actively  works at her art, and is in exhibitions 
including 
an internationl  invitation one that her work is in right now.

Shortly after she  recoverd,  she organized The Sleeping Princess Team with 
her friends.  The team raises money for the Ovarian Cancer Coalition of 
Pittsburgh. This  is the fifth year that the team and Heidi's family will 
walk with her at  the Walk to Break the Silence in the fall.  Our little 
team 
has been  able to raise over $20,000. in funds to contribute to the cause.

Yes,  butterflies are harbingers of renewal and transformation, and 
healing.  
They are a reflection of the Creator and come to bring us joy and  healing.

Lynda River  Woman

----- Original Message -----  
From: <KajunCutie926 at aol.com>
To:  <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 7:27 AM
Subject:  [stylist] Sharinhg one of the Conversations from the Teacher  
series

>I have decided to use two sections when compiling  the  Teacher series,
> Lessons and Conversation.  This is an  example of what might  be found in 
> the
> Conversations  section, inspired by my granddaughter.  It is  also 
>  attached.  I
> am slowly catching up to email as it has been  an  unexpectedly hectic few
> days here but I am now reading all  Stylist mail,  finally.
>
> Innocence and  Butterflies
>
>
> He watches the child from a safe distance,  not wishing to disturb or
> intrude upon the moment. A butterfly has  captured her attention, 
> mesmerizing
> her, making her oblivious  to all but the flutter of wing, the dance of 
> color
> across a  flawless sky.
>
> He sketches to memory the innocence, the wistful  joy, and intrigued
> imagination etched on the child's face, sparkling  within her eyes. If 
only
> innocence could last forever, he  muses.
>
> 'Sir, why did the Creator make butterflies?' the girl's  softly asked
> question breaks the silence.
>
> The man  thinks for a moment, watching the winged beauty, before he 
speaks.
>  'The butterfly is like a flying gardener, little one, for it helps to 
>  bring
> us  flowers and fruit. If we watch them carefully they can  tell us how
> healthy  nature is. And I think they remind us that  what may seem 
fragile 
> and
> easily  broken often has an  inner strength we sometimes overlook.'
>
> As if on cue the  butterfly flits away onto a new journey and the girl's
> eyes shadow  slightly but then she smiles. 'I suppose you're right but I 
>  think
> it's more than that.'
>
> 'And just what do you  think it might be?' he asks.
>
> 'I think the Creator just wants  us to see that even an ugly old 
> caterpillar
> can fool you!'  The girl grins and skips away in search of another
>  adventure.
>
> The man is left in stunned silence and swears he  hears the Creator 
> chuckle,
>  'Indeed!'
>
>

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