[stylist] Gratitude, a Reflection
Lynda Lambert
llambert at zoominternet.net
Mon Nov 12 20:34:08 UTC 2012
OH, I well remember that movie. Natalie Wood starred in it - very beautiful
and sad story. I probably saw it several times over the years. I loved that
film. It was based on a true story that took place in Kansas during the
depression - the main character was a teenage girl whose family lost
everything when the stock market crashed. She had a mental illness and in my
mind it was one of the first times as a teenager myself, that I became aware
of mental illness. I remember it certainly does not have a happy Hollywood
ending to it.
You sure have a wonderful memory and now that you mentioned it I remember
it, too. Thanks for the memory!
This is off topic, Jackie, but this reminder of the film you mentioned
brings to my mind another film around that time that is forever embedded in
my mind. I believe it was called "On the Beach." I do not recall the actors,
but I do recall how it frightened me to the core - a deep fear that we all
had during those years growing up when we were drilled at school and taught
to hide under desks, run into basement bomb shelters, and hit the ground
wherever we were when the "bomb" dropped. I think that people my age who
grew up with this daily fear of being killed instantly have retained this
kind of dread inside of us forever. Just talking about this gives me shivers
all over again, after over 60 years of such drills in school. It leaves a
forboding kind of terror that never really goes away completely.
Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jacqueline Williams" <jackieleepoet at cox.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 1:47 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] Gratitude, a Reflection
> Lynda,
> There is a movie, "Splendor In The Grass," that, as I remember, used a
> butterfly as a motif for happiness. It played again, and I watched it
> again
> though I was unable to see the details. It was moving.
> Jackie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lynda
> Lambert
> Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 5:22 PM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Gratitude, a Reflection
>
> Yes, Jackie, I wrote it in June, this year.
> http://www.walkingbyinnervision.blogspot.com/2012/06/butterflies-bring-heali
> ng.html
>
> I went back to it and worked on it quite a bit; made significent changes;
> additions for clarification; refined it.
>
> While I was working on it this past week, I began to become vaguely aware
> of
>
> another butterfly themed art work I did this year. Yesterday, we went to
> the museum and picked up one of my fiber pieces that was featured in a
> Mid
> Atlantic Juried Exhibition. That work features a butterfly motif
> surrounding an iconic female image. I had not even realized this until
> the
> work came back into my hands at the museum. Strange, butterflies have not
> been on my radar in any of my literary or art works until this year!
>
> Lynda
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jacqueline Williams" <jackieleepoet at cox.net>
> To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 4:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Gratitude, a Reflection
>
>
>> Lynda,
>> I remember this posting from some time ago. I had commented at that time
>> on
>> my sister in Idaho who is a butterfly person, a sign on her car that
>> says,
>> "I brake for butterflies," butterflies on her hats, etc.
>> Have you read the news article that said that a Monarch butterfly,
>> emerged
>> during the storm in New York, was determined not able to make the journey
>> to
>> Texas on his own. The rest had departed. An airline, I don't remember
>> which
>> one, flew it to Texas, where they expected it would be able to join those
>> who migrated.
>> Your faith does indeed create visions for you that are art worthy. And
>> for
>> Heidi also.
>> Jackie
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lynda
>> Lambert
>> Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2012 9:45 AM
>> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] Gratitude, a Reflection
>>
>> Here is my contribution to the writing prompt recently handed down by
>> Chris.
>> I will attach a copy of the Word document and I will copy/paste it below
>> this message as well.
>>
>>
>> "Butterflies Bring Healing" by Lynda Lambert
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> In the spring time a myriad of flowers begin to scatter themselves
>> over
>> the acres of wild meadows and fields; along the rural roadsides; in
>> meadows
>> overlooking swiftly moving waters of the creeks. This is our annual
>> dance
>> of life forces, when the earth becomes warm and every living thing bursts
>> forth in celebration. The movement of this dance comes forth in living
>> color; in Western Pennsylvania.
>>
>>
>>
>> Months later, the dance of the butterflies and flowers comes to an
>> end.
>> The days will once again bring in the crisp mornings; the clocks will
>> be
>> turned back; the grass grows slick and cold; there eventually will be no
>> more flowers or butterflies. There was one exception to this though, as I
>> think about it today. I remember one miraculous afternoon in January,
>> 2008.
>> On that day, I watched quietly while two butterflies played together in
>> the
>> air; it was perfectly normal.
>>
>>
>>
>> When I see a butterfly it brings back a specific memory for me.
>>
>>
>>
>> It was over five years ago. I had just lost most of my sight. I had
>> not
>> yet had any help, and did not yet know about technologies that would help
>> me, nor did I yet know of rehabilitation for the blind. I had no white
>> cane;
>> no way of doing anything I had done just a couple months before.
>> Overnight,
>> my entire life was transformed into something that was new and
>> unexpected.
>
>> I
>> could not use the elevator; could not see the buttons to press; didn't
>> know
>> on what floor it had landed. Simple things like that, we took for
>> granted,
>> but those simple things were now a mystery to me.
>>
>>
>>
>> It was at this very time that my second daughter, Heidi Melinda, was
>> diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Now, I stood at her bedside in the IC unit
>> in
>> a Pittsburgh, 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 monitors and computers
>> continuously, monitoring her, searching for the right mix of drugs to
>> help
>> her. We waited there in limbo as each day flowed into the next in this
>> netherworld existence. 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 flew 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 felt like I watched
>> them
>> for quite awhile. 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 had emerged from another dimension, it seemed. The two
>> had made themselves visible to me. They gave me new hope for my daughter.
>> I
>> knew they were a pictorial symbol of the Holy Spirit. A Spirit made
>> visible.
>> 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, after five years following surgery, Heidi remains free of
>> ovarian
>> cancer. This, in spite of the tests done in surgery that had shown 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.
>>
>>
>>
>> Heidi has lasting side effects from her surgery and her long recovery
>> time. Her body remembers the trauma; is still responding to it. It is
>> clear
>> to me that our bodies do carry memories. Those memories in the entire
>> body
>> continue to have a response to the trauma it went through.
>>
>>
>>
>> Heidi is an artist. She has a studio in the woods, on a mountain
>> top.
>> She actively works at her art, and is in exhibitions including an
>> international invitation one that her work is in right now.
>>
>>
>>
>> Shortly after she recovered, she organized The Sleeping Princess Team
>> with her friends. The team raises money for the Ovarian Cancer Coalition
>> of
>> Pittsburgh. Last fall was the fifth year that the team and her family
>> walked
>> with her in the sunshine at the "Walk to Break the Silence." Our little
>> team
>> has been able to raise over $20,000. in funds to contribute to the cause.
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes, butterflies are harbingers; of renewal; transformation; healing;
>> Divine presence; gratitude.
>>
>> This joyous dancing dyad of large crimson red butterflies, were a
>> reflection of the Creator who sent them to me on a bleak winter day. It
>> was
>> a message that came at the darkest moment of my life; right on time!
>>
>>
>>
>> (the end)
>>
>> Copyright,2012. All Rights Reserved
>>
>> Posted on blog, June 1, 2012: Walking By Inner Vision
>>
>> http://www.walkingbyinnervision.blogspot.com
>>
>> Revised: 10 November, 2012.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Lynda Lambert,MFA
>> My Blog: http://www.walkingbyinnervision.blogspot.com
>> My Website: http://lyndalambert.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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