Butterfly Lane

A road. Through the deep woods, near Maple farms, and a babbling brook. In the Catskill mountains of NY.

10 years ago, my daughter son and I, along with my (then) wife, would visit it. And for years before, every time we came to the lake and cabin.

It's real name is Peas Eddy Road, in Hancock, NY.

But it will always be Butterfly Lane to me.

For it was there, nets and jars in hand, we caught many gorgeous butterflies. We'd bring them back to the cabin. Look at them. I would sketch them. Then we would set them free.

Today, after all that has gone by. Divorce. Loss of family. Loss of so much.

I took my beautiful daughter, now 23, down that road once more.

And there were butterflies. Beautiful ones. And I captured them. This time, with my camera.

And a part of me healed. As I brought the past together with the present.

And my daughter looked out upon familiar ground, with new eyes.

And we enjoyed the beauty. The tranquility. The incredible views. Together again.

It's been a long 10 years. It's been beyond painful.

But today, I felt my heart fill up once more with the joy and promise I once had, those many years ago.

The world. Nature. The trees. The rolling brook. The clear blue skies, the warming sun.

God lives there. And he heals us through them.

The one abiding constant of this world is that nature is ever present. Alive and filled with the power and the beauty of all that Mother Nature can muster.

And if we are open to it. If we become one with it, it heals us as nothing else can.

Because we are all connected. The tiny butterfly. The beautiful but transient flower. The water that carves it's way through the rocks and mountains over thousands of years.

If we let ourselves become part of that once more, we find and feel in ourselves the wonders of creation and of the endless eons that have passed.

We are all nothing but stardust. Ever single living thing. Every rock, every leaf on a tree.

And when we find that connection, wounds heal, and the incredible power of the force of life fills us.

As it did, for me. Today.