Things We Gather

Dear Diary,

Yesterday I spoke about the tokens I leave when I travel so today I will write about things I gather to take home...my natural souvenirs.  I actually posted a photograph of this window sill quite awhile back but I've added to it since then.

The beautiful white leaf was from Star Island last Labor Day weekend when I co-facilitated a retreat on contemplative photography.  I had never seen leaves like this, greenish red on one side and white on the other but it somehow symbolized the two sides of all of us, the one we show the world and the one we keep hidden.  The wind would make the leaves reveal their pure, white side for a moment and it was a lovely effect.  I brought one home pressed in a book.

The other new addition is the swallow tail butterfly that I found at St. Joseph's Abbey.  I thought it was just resting on the ground but when I approached it was apparent that it had died.  It was frozen in this position and I carefully put it in a box to take home.  It was a very poignant reminder of the tenuous nature of life.  The little butterfly spends its short life gathering nectar and just "doing its thing", living completely in the present moment.  When its time came, it just came to rest.  A powerful lesson for us all.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

Robert Herrick