{35 things I am still learning}

35 things I am still learning...

1. Life is a fast moving train. It's amazing how quickly tomorrow becomes yesterday. And yesterday becomes ten years ago.
2. The people that love you most in life are the same ones to risk the offense of setting you straight. These are the keepers.
3. Kids really do grow up in the blink of an eye. Dust off your photo albums... you'll see.
4. Kids don't have to grow up in a perfect home. But they need stability, sound example, apologies for the occasional lack thereof and most of all... unconditional love.
5. Reveling in a good cup of coffee, a simple prayer and contemplative music is a good daily ritual.
6. A dog can be the most loyal friend you will ever have. They never grow tired of you either. 
7. People that try to discourage you are really only envious of your drive and ambition.
8. Love is an amazing force. Euphoria is the wild flame that fades, but slow burning embers the heat that sustains. 
9. Words can be just as devastating as the actions that preceeded or follow them.
10. Thinking of people who have really ticked you off in life while you are running will easily push you right through that last mile.
11. Use anger to propel you when you need it as a driving force for success, but don't carry it like the weight that it is.
12. God is in the biggest of things, the sky to the expanse of the smallest minutia, a grain of sand. 
13. You cannot fix another person's addictions. You can't take responsibility for them either.
14. Food.. it's one of the greatest simple pleasures in life. Vacation, another. 
15. Live in today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Today is only one you have control over.
16. Attitude can turn your entire world upside down or right-side up. It's one of the biggest determining forces we have. It's one of the only determining forces we have.
17. Give people the same grace that you have been given. Especially when they don't deserve it. That is when they need it the most.
18. Realize that the most judgmental opinions come from people who've messed up the worst. It's their way of mentally elevating themselves out of their own faults.
19. Don't judge someone else by what you see. Your vision is only external. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. {I Sam. 16:7}
20. Confidence really is an admirable trait. But be careful not to blur the line into cockiness. Narcissism, like ego, is best when kept in healthy check.
21. Verbally express love to the people that matter to you. As life is uncertain and goodbyes unplanned - knowing they knew you loved them can sustain you when they are gone.
22. Count your blessings. On your lowest day, count them twice as much.
23. Laugh. Often and outloud.
24. You can't airbrush wrinkles and gray hair in real life. So parallel them with wisdom you've gained.
25. Don't allow society to define beauty for you. Find it internally.
26. Money is pretty gosh darn nice, but it isn't a cure for the individual voids we all have.
27. Find your vocation in doing what you love by knowing you could do it for free.
28. Realize that there is always someone more talented, more beautiful, more successful, more creative, more everything. There is also always someone less. Trying to be all you can be regardless of who is in front of or behind you is key. Forget where you are in line. Focus on moving forward.
29. Don't believe everything you see on the news. Read more and watch tv less. 
30. Sometimes all you need is a drive through the country with the windows rolled down and your music loud.
31. Propelling yourself to succeed is important. But trophies, accolades, titles, plaques and net profits won't be among your final thoughts when your journey is through. Invest your success in your loved ones, rather. As love is the only baggage you can't leave behind. You can leave all the rest. You will leave all the rest no matter how tightly you cling to it.
32. Everyone fails. Choose to get back up and try again.
33. Don't blame your parents for who you are today. You may have their DNA, but you make your own imprint.
34. Find significance and beauty in things that inspire you. Seek them out intentionally. 
35. Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many. 

{Thankful Thursday}

Today I read something that provoked me. 


"When you forgive you say - I'm not a judge - I let go of pain - it could be me."
- Taken from Children of the Inner Light, Daily Inspiration.


Which is a more difficult thing to do? Carry the hurt over many years or try to forgive the offender? I'm thinking they are equally as hard. But on one hand, carrying the hurt over many years can be the knife that injures you, not them. We learn this the hard way, sometimes the destructive way. Every year we allow the knife to remain and dig a little deeper. Infection has well past set in. Nothing can heal if the damage is still allowed to occur. We not only have to stop the offender from offending us, but we have to stop being offended. Offense is a choice no matter how you spin it. Forgiving is the only way of pulling the knife out of your heart - handing it to the offender and walking away. At that point, it doesn't matter what they do with it. It's no longer yours to carry or or hurt over. The proactive choice was made to let go of the weight and the pain and move on with your life. Pride makes it a very hard thing. Injustice makes it a very hard thing. Hurt makes it a very hard thing. But sanity and progression and health make it a necessary thing.


Forgiveness means a lot of things, but let me tell you what it does not mean. It doesn't mean that you have to embrace the offender's life or their choices. It doesn't mean you don't learn from your injuries. It doesn't mean you allow repeat injuries. Forgiveness does not condone the allowance of someone to continue to hurt you anymore - it doesn't mean that y'all are best friends either. Rather it sometimes means that they are not even a part of your life. Forgiveness is a personal choice based on self preservation and truth. You do it for what you believe in. You do it for you. Not them. It's a part of what encompasses the toughest part of love - and you do it because you love yourself enough to. 


In life we are the offender and the offended. Different times, different roles. Some injuries much worse than others. None the less, none of us go without causing injury or sustaining it. So today I am thankful for forgiveness. For the times I've given it, continue to give it and continue to need it seeing as I am part of this big sea of humanity. Forgiveness is the granting and accepting lifeboat that continues to save us from drowning. And while it's sometimes a daily process of handing back the weight and the knife, I have found that the peace in letting hurt go overrides the temptation to hold onto it. I am thankful for all of the people in my life who have known forgiveness. For the influences they've demonstrated to me in sharing their own personal stories of forgiveness and freedom. For the encouragement it brings and the road it opens wide to the journey ahead.

{Butterfly Cocoon}

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. 


We could never fly.

{Chrysalis} Even at your yearly, yes.

Most often things in my life come to me in odd unexpected doses. Sometimes when something brings a smile to my face, it's usually not something I predicted. 8 years ago I was pregnant with my daughter, photography was not a hobby necessarily but I sure was interested! I was always "the girl with the camera" for every family function. Always forcing everyone to get together to smile, because you see, documentation is important to me. The ones that we love? They are the ones that witness our journeys. And because I love them, I photograph them. Or make them smile for me. :)

I saw a picture like this eight years ago of a little boy kissing his momma's belly and I fell in love with it. I vowed to learn to be better at photography b/c I knew I could take a picture and then edit it {hello, savvy graphic designer skills which WAS my job then}. And so, this was technically - outside of my photography classes in college and shooting my sister Jess - the first photograph I attempted to take with artistic purpose since college really. And this is probably the photograph that - outside of Jess- started my love for photography. 8 years later... here I am today, kinda embarrassed by the harsh shadow from flash up against the wall - but none the less. That photo is precious to me. It's an earmark - a point in my journey that led me farther than I would have imagined... spiritually and emotionally.

So back to where we started, that yearly visit. Yes. You women know all about it. Dread it. I even painted my toenails lastnight. AS if they really spend any time looking at your toes. I told her that I didn't think I could do her job.. like ever. She laughed and replied that she couldn't photograph weddings. Fair enough. Still - I like my view a whoooooooole lot better looking out of a camera vs .... just sayin'.

So - backtrack a bit -  as I'm standing there waiting for the doc to come in - you know, photographing my feet and my pretty gown to send to Adrian b/c he gets a kick out of my random iPhone pictures - I look through all of the photos sent in from moms who've had their babies through Kristin Vincent - midwife at Memorial {IF you are planning or just pregnant, she is the BEST, use her. I promise you it'll be a totally different experience, much better, than you had ever imagined!!} Kristin delivered Adrienna. I wish I had her for Brendon but I didn't, regardless. She's a friend, amazing CNM and woman in general. I had forgotten until I looked up towards the right of the corkboard that once upon a time, I too had sent in a picture for Kristin. It's still hanging up, hadn't noticed it before.

Now I know these pix I took today of the picture are small b/c they were taken on my iphone, but isn't it funny the roads that lead us back to the one we were always on. That is my picture. My belly. My bubba Brendon. He was 4. It's a special photo for me. And I keep it close at home in a frame to remember a start, and how many of us moms out there pick up photography b/c we love our own kids so much...

So yes, even on your yearly - in a small doctor's office - you can sometimes find an unexpected reason to smile, feel blessed, remember and be joyful all at once.

{I am still learning}

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, despite whatever we were feeling.

I've learned that feelings are fleeting & not reliable. Truth is though.

I've learned that friends and family will on occasion hurt us and that we must forgive them for that.

I've learned that most days I am not yet the person I want to be.

I've also learned I will never give up on being that person someday.

I've learned that you have strengths you never knew you had until you were forced to find them.

I've learned that your attitude can control you.. if you don't control it.

I've learned the same for anger.

I've learned that it can take one minute to cause a lifetime of heartache.

I've learned that money is only paper and that while it may feed desires, it doesn't feed the soul.

I've learned that euphoria isn't a constant state and that slow burning embers are hottest to feed the flame.

I've learned that love is a decision and a choice.

I've learned that there is no fear in perfect love.

I've learned that I can do anything or nothing with good friends and still have the very best time.

I've learned to realize that some people choose not to change and that you can't lead a horse to water.

I've learned that sometimes the very people you thought would kick you when you were down were the same people that held out a hand to pull you up.

I've learned that life is very unpredictable.

I've learned that your body is really a car. Shiny and new at first and at the finish line an old clunker that's falling apart but got you home. 

I've learned that the journey is well taken in that once-upon-a-time shiny car.

I've learned that maturity has less to do with your age and more to do with the experiences you've lived through and how you've learned from them.

I've learned that sometimes you have to forgive yourself.

I've learned that no matter how hurt you are sometimes, the world keeps turning. 
I've learned that sometimes incredible happiness can come from a child's laughter.
I've learned that the power of positive thinking is crucial in life. Our thoughts either hold us captive or set us free.

I've learned that our histories can't be amputated from our destiny. Part of who we are today is because of who we were yesterday.

I've learned that a burned out history can make us a victim or an phoenix. But we are the ones who make that choice.

I've learned that trophies, medals, credentials and plaques on a wall of accomplishments do not solidify one as respectable human being. 

I've learned that life is short and sometimes people we expect to outlive us... do not. 

I've learned that grieving loss is just as much a part as accepting it and finding peace in it.

I've learned that your tongue is a powerful thing - you can not take back your words.

I've learned that living your dreams has less to do with money and more to do with your heart.

I've learned that the legacy I leave for my kids is more important than any accomplishment I make or accolades I receive.

I've learned that sometimes a dog is the only one to comfort you when you cry and that.. is ok. Even quite nice that God created such wonderful creatures that seemingly understand emotion.

I've learned that there is so much joy in life to be found, only though if you are seeking it. 
I've learned that people will read into you and assume things about your stature, but only God knows your heart.
I've learned that the world we are surrounded by is sometimes desolate and full of blight, despair and selfishness. 
I've learned that the world we are surrounded by is sometimes full of hope, inspiration and servitude. 

I've learned that I am only as sage as I feel and that with each year predictably comes new wisdom.

I've learned that there are few choices that do not change in one's lifetime... one of which is, learning.

{Greenstone}

Today marks two years that my sister was killed in a car accident. Jess was 28. A year ago we buried her ashes in a cemetery about 45 minutes from me. Tuesday of this week she finally got a headstone, thanks to my brother. He once made headstones as an occupation. He knew the perfect stone for Jess - Greenstone - found in Alaska where he lives.  When he found the perfect one, he carved it for her and made it special to her. He then shipped it from Alaska to Indiana so we could place it this week. And so it was, a 300 lb. One Duck Greenstone was placed on Tuesday of this week where my sister rests.

Jessy loved the color green. Her eyes were greenish blue quite similar to this stone. I am so proud of my brother for sculpting the perfect stone for Jess - it's not an easy thing to create your little sister's headstone. But he made something so unique and beautifully asymmetrical, just like Jess was. I think she would have been proud of what he accomplished for her. Not many of us think about how our headstone will look, or how it will represent us, but maybe we should. I read some information about this stone after my brother told me about its singularity. It's quite interesting and I wanted to share it...

This stone is "light jade" in color.  It has a distinctive, wavy banding -- of alternating light and dark greens.  This banding tells the geologist that the stone was formed as layers of deposition in a marine environment.  Its wavy pattern suggests that the water was turbid. Structural geologists call this rock "turbidite." It has a curious and distinctive manner of breaking.  To one sculptor, it breaks "like chocolate," to another, its cleavage pattern "suggests the mesas, arroyos, and other erosional elements of a southwestern desert."   Most sculptors like to utilize its attractive broken edges in their work.  One Duck Greenstone is harder than marble, but softer than granite.  One Duck Greenstone will not deteriorate in the outdoors.  Its polish will be long lasting. This stone comes from the One Duck Lake area of Prince of Wales Island.

Maybe... 

Aren picked this stone b/c of its color. Or because of its forming in the ocean - Jess loved the ocean. 

Or maybe because it sat in turbid waters - dark and murky. This stone gained its beauty from its time as the ocean sediment. Beautiful things can be formed from seasons of darkness. My sister had definitely experienced her own seasons of this - but because she emerged from them - they made her the beautiful creation she was in the end to her Maker. 

Maybe because when the stone breaks its broken edges also become beautiful in a Sculptor's Hands. Jessy, like so many of us had broken edges - but God used them to make her more beautiful and unprecedented than before. 

Maybe because Greenstone is harder than most - but retains some softness in comparison to others. Jessy was a rock through so many things in life, she kept her soft heart though until the end. Her heart was overflowing in her last few days, her heart had softened so much. 

Its beauty is long lasting and polished. It does not matter that physically Jess is no longer here, her beauty will always remain. Her memory, polished and kept smooth - just like the very surface of that stone that marks her life and death.

All of these traits somehow parallel my sister in one way or another. I am not sure how many of those once among us that are no longer living can so symbolically tie their marker into a life, but I have to believe like all things God does when it comes to my sister - there is reason and lesson.

Thankful for life today. Thankful for my sister's life today. Thankful for the knowledge that someday, I will see her again. Thankful for our many memories and how they will continue to carry me through until that day I see her. And we will laugh and talk about the memories we made strawberry picking while I sang Coldplay's "Green Eyes" to her, she sang it with me. Interesting now, even... the lyrics to that song, combining the sea, a rock and green eyes. Sometimes I am not sure of God's plan or how or why He works, but I'll trust it... b/c without faith, I am nothing.

Love and miss you little sis. 

May each day I live be a tribute and a song to your life here, sweet girl, until we meet again.

{Chrysalis - Faith, Fate & Destiny}

I'm doing a study on Esther - figured it was finally a way to get myself away from this desk and surround myself with women I don't know and ... beloved coffee. Who's complaining? Not me. :)

"Faith is putting God in every fill in the blank." - Beth Moore
That's true. And I'm not so good at it. What is it about most of you who are like me that LOVE to fill that blank in yourself and actually really spend time figuring your options? Remember quizzes in elementary where you could pick your options from the list at the top of the paper? Well, should make the test and questions all easy to have one answer, you'd think. Faith is a tough choice - a tough answer sometimes as it holds to us something that is non-concrete and leaves us believing blind. But it's so important that we learn to have it. Because faith - immense as it is - affects so many aspects of our lives, even the seemingly trivial ones.  From what I have gathered so far in regards to this study I am taking about Esther is about dealing with a season of feeling that God is not near you. Keep in mind that our feelings are not always truth. Feeling alone, left behind, angry, displaced, shut out, unusable by God are some of the things described in this study. In truth, He's never stepped away - it's just we who walk away from Him. What we feel during that season is not truth. He will not leave or forsake us. We are the ones who leave and forsake Him.

I experienced this after my sister died. I couldn't pray, couldn't even talk to Him. Couldn't sing to Him. Couldn't do anything... but avoid Him. Because if it brought tears - well I had had enough of those in my grieving, certainly didn't need more. Especially from the One who took my sister home. {As if I thought I had a right or say in the number of her days, anyway.} And so began one of the loneliest separations in my life that I created out of coping. Coping meaning: shutting down, shutting off. When all along the only thing I needed was Him. I shut Him out - out of anger & hurt, disbelief in His plan for a woman that was one of my best friends and the most like me in many ways. Selfishly desiring that I had not been inflicted with such loss simply b/c I didn't want to deal with losing anyone close to me... younger than me. Those things happen to other people, not me.

Fate is not in our hands per say. Destiny of what we are called to, however is. We have a fate, we also have a destiny. A reason we are here.

Fate is the preordained course of your life that will occur because of or in spite of your actions.
Destiny is a set of predetermined events within your life that you take an active course in shaping.

"Destiny is the Spiritual Will of the person; a deep inner need; something that drives us to do what seems impossible. It nurtures us with hope in our darkest moments; enables us to dream of better things, and resides in a place where we are destined to find our fulfillment."
"Many people feel that Fate is unkind and whimsical in approach, but in fact it is both generous and extremely mindful of the needs of our soul. Sometimes it hurts, but sadly it is often only through hardship that we discover our inner strength and capabilities to achieve great things." - J. Shell


I do not believe in chance. Or coincidence really. I do believe in destiny. And free will. And that a calling can be missed if we are not seeking it. I am seeking mine. With abandon. Fate will teach me things that I don't necessarily want to learn, but God has a destiny for me that I have to first seek. His destiny for me? Won't happen without me. I have to help shape what He intended for me. And soooooo much of that... comes back to that one little thing... faith. Without it, I'm the apple seed that never becomes an orchard or the mustard seed that never becomes shelter.

I think.. I might learn something really good from this study. And this season. Starting with learning to grow where I am planted.

{Chrysalis & good coffee}

I've got really good coffee this morning and I feel a sort of rebirth. :) Cognitively of course. Super-charged. Now if I can only be Super Woman and get all of my work done today.

Uh, not gonna happen. Midnight after midnight, still not caught up! Sure am trying!

Tuesdays are average days. Not yet to the middle, no where near the end. Just there.

When you lose someone you love unexpectedly in life, that day always serves as a reminder to it. It sort of gets the dreaded, "Oh yeah, it's Tuesday." "That day". We don't forget place and time when horrible things in life happen to us. We just don't. Would be nice if we could in an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind sorta way, but again - if we erased all the bad memories, we'd have no good left either. No selective erasing in life, or erasing in general.


Jess died on a Tuesday. And.. I still think of her every day. But sometimes more on Tuesdays. I do make it a point when I write about her death to not be morbid, but to shed subtle light on a subject that affects and will affect all of us at one point. And b/c well, it's cathartic for me - sometimes I just need to.  I had never dealt w/ death this close to me until my sister died unexpectedly almost two years ago at 28 years of age from a car accident.

I keep a card on my desk that she gave me years ago & at the bottom it said, "I can't imagine what I'd ever do without you." I think about that. And how we don't and can't imagine. But sometimes we are forced to ... do without. Live without. The only certainty that life brings is uncertainty. But through this, faith, patience and experience are developed.

I read something today that really made me think about how love permits pain...

• {"Who can estimate how much we owe to suffering and pain? But for them we should have little scope for many of the chief virtues of the Christian life. Where was faith, without trial to test it; or patience, with nothing to bear; or experience, without tribulation to develop it?" - Taken from Streams in the Desert, August 10th.

 Again we come back to the chrysalis. The transformation & shaping that change brings. We determine the effect it has on us - good or bad. All of these virtues can be developed if we allow them to.

So today is a good day, although it's Tuesday.
I have good coffee from my brother in Alaska, love you little bro. I have work on my plate that I enjoy & love. I have a family that is home with me today.

Happy Tuesday.

{Chrysalis} Perspective & Purpose

I've had something on the brain for about a week now.

I've watched other photographers go through it. I've watched myself go through it. Any profession, any walk of life - at one point, you stop and wonder... am I good enough? Am I where I should be? In our human tendencies.. we dissect, compare. Sometimes we feel ahead of the game. Sometimes we fall short. We stack up the odds against ourselves. We do it. We know our worst insecurities. And sometimes - that fact? That fact alone is what we allow to reside in our hearts. We pick our "frailties" apart one by one and sort them out, attributing each a tag of influence or cause. Only thing we are left with is sorted and tagged insecurities... and let us not forget... the lovely sullen emptiness that follows as the caboose to the precarious, pitiful parade.  But... we do it. I am laughing and shaking my head as I myself am guilty of this - all of it.

Why do we? If this life is a journey and each person a different gifting to behold, a different contribution to make during our time here - why do we label ourselves by classifying the things we think determine us? They don't. False perspective makes us question our purpose. True perspective? Solidifies purpose.

Life will never be about the perspective of accolades declaring who we are. But guaranteed ... it will be about purpose. And what was ours. Was my purpose to be as good as so-and-so someday? That's a great goal - but one should never feel satisfied that they've arrived. There is always learning to be had and growth to achieve. The people that get this? Watch them soar. They aren't worried about what anyone else is doing. They aren't comparing.  They just continue to move forward - journeying ahead.

The purpose is to stay on the journey you are called to, do your best and enjoy each moment of discovery that comes along the path. It is really about discovery of your talents, your strengths .. you. Avoid the shortcuts, the potholes, the detours - push through the construction! Accept where you are today and realize that you won't be there tomorrow. And that whether you move forward or backwards - you are still called to a journey that doesn't care about destination. There is no destination. There's only journey.

I truly believe in a plan for each life. That although we are given free will, we are each designed for something truly special and unique. Don't waste time wondering if you are good enough or where you should be. If you know that to which you are called to - do it with purpose.

I have always known that God gave me a huge love for art. Even as a girl I saw beauty in things others did not. I knew that I would study art/design early on. But never in a million years - even after taking classes in college did I figure that my heart would be stolen by photography. But you see, the journey I was on led me to it.  There is purpose in the journey even when you don't know your destination - just ask hindsight. Had I not studied art, worked in Marketing and Graphic Design for so long - photography had not gone digital... all the what ifs.

I was called to this for a purpose. And when I look at it in that perspective - insecurities and measuring ups fade away, don't matter. Because really, each time I photograph people, it's a blessing. It's a gift. It's an honor. I don't ever want to lose sight of that or feel that I deserve to book sessions, or deserve to excel or deserve to make 'X' amount of dollars. No, truthfully? I don't deserve any of it. I don't. I am considerably blessed to be on the journey that I am.

There's a musician I really like that sings about a purposefully lived life. Sarah Groves. We hold all the keys to our undoing. (lyrics) I love that. We decide so much of who we become. Decide to enjoy this journey, every single step - even the hardest steps - follow through, they lead you to views you can't enjoy without the hard work of climbing forward. Decide to accept each day with grateful indebtedness and each dollar as absolute blessing. Decide to live a life with purpose, not comparison. Decide that on this day you have come very far on this journey - far from where you have been - but that you will push harder, learn more, stretch further ... tomorrow and every day thereafter.

And.. if your perspective matches your purpose - you will. 

{Chrysalis} Traditions

As a kid we had traditions. Grandma gave us oranges at Christmas for awhile. That was a tradition that all of us Grandkids were thankful didn't last. Ha. Every year Aunt Lucy made her pistachio salad for Christmas gatherings. Each winter Dad would buy a box of oranges from the church. If Mom took us camping, an educational "nature walk" was to be had. We all have traditions from our childhood. Things we looked forward to even if we didn't. Things we expected. Anticipated. Things as simple as a favorite dish. Tradition represents normalcy. Stability. Consistency. 

It's necessary.

As we grow up and marry, have children.... we begin our own traditions. I have never really until this moment sat down to recognize and collect Kaser family traditions. But I know that every Christmas morning we head over to Adrian's mom's house. Every Fourth of July we grill with Dad and then head to North Liberty fireworks. Each July represents the birthdays of both of my children - a birthday party with family is to be orchestrated, celebrated. Every fall I want to recklessly drive into the pumpkin stand that sits in the middle of the town intersection. That never changes, sadly, renegade that I am.  Every fall I buy buttermilk cookies from Amish Acres & cinnamon lamp oil from Borkholders. And to take us back to the topic that is today: Every summer we head to New Buffalo beach for sun, play-time in the water, rock climbing, dune climbing and the grand finale that is Redamaks. 

I said in an earlier post that every week, once a week I will try to post a Chrysalis topic. One that involves learning, growth. The word Chrysalis refers to the third state of the butterfly metamorphosis - it is a time where the caterpillar is broken down and its parts - literally rearranged in order to become the most beautiful and final stage. Growth and wisdom come from transformation. Transformation doesn't happen without change.

What I have learned - and recently - is that traditions silently mold us, shape us into who we are. They are insignificant until we recognize this. And when we do in fact realize the importance traditions hold in our lives - the more we try to initiate for our children, ourselves. Traditions are in essence a glue. The melding that comes from anticipating something you do together - the memories that precede it from last year - the joy of expectancy in what next year holds - it is all a small but vastly important part of what makes up our lives. 

Traditions make our lives rich. Traditions are sweet sentiments of yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

Traditions document our progress, our changing, our aging, our life.

Traditions carry us. 

Make one, or two.

{Chrysalis}

I *ahem* am trying to find some organization with my blogging. Consistency specifically - but also finding a way to share more.

It's obvious that I have branded myself with butterflies. They are special to me. If you are not sure why and want the story? Go here. Click on website and then Tribute.

So here is a blogging related term I will be using on a weekly basis - henceforth - to talk about things I am learning, ways I am growing and things I am thankful for. I never want to stop growing or learning. I only hope to refine the process as to achieve through foresight, not error.


{Chrysalis} 
The third stage in Lepidoptera metamorphosis (also called the pupa). The body tissues and organs of the caterpillar are broken down and re-arranged to develop the adult. The chrysalis is the most vulnerable stage because the individual does not have any ability to move if threatened by enemies or adverse environmental conditions.

This stage represents growth and strength - being broken down in order to be transformed. Sometimes when we GROW it comes through being vulnerable and weak - it is a new arrangement that does not come without some pain. Our greatest growth comes through some of our greatest fears and hardest trials. For every negative, there's a positive that can be found. When I am in the process of learning or growing and I want to share - blog topics will be named as such, Chrysalis.