Emerging Courageous Newsletter 26
Marilyn Dixon Pfanstiel, Editor
July 14, 2003
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Today’s Message – Chrysalis

Several months ago my grandson Taylor excited said, “Grammy, look what I found!”whereupon he showed me a chrysalis he had found. I asked him what it would be when it hatched and he said it would be a moth and asked would I keep it for him. He had placed it in a quart jar. I said I would put it in the basement workshop. He asked me to let me know when it hatched and I said I would and promptly forgot about it. Periodically I would notice it in the workshop and think that I ought to throw it out but left it there. Yesterday when I went in the shop I heard what sounded like a bird trying to get out. There was a flapping of wings…and I looked and a huge moth filled the jar but was trying frantically to get out. He must have been in there for a while as the chrysalis had been eaten. I reached inside to free him and I noticed the ends of his wings were curled and damaged….Then I realized he must have been frantically trying to escape his prison and had hurt his wings. He walked up my arm, frantically flapping his wings trying to be free to no avail. I took him outside and set him down and he kept repeating this fruitless effort…I felt horrible…I had made him crippled, unable to fly…My cat curiously came over to see what the commotion was about and watched the moth struggling for a while then turned away after losing interest. Then I heard something stir on the other side of me and it was a young o’possom slightly smaller than my cat coming over to investigate the flapping in the weeds. I squealed with surprise and he looked up at me and waddled off into the bushes. I felt so terrible because I thought the moth would probably be the next meal for the your o’possom. That is the chain of the life cycle but I still felt responsible for the helplessness of this creature. I would never again take something from its natural habitat and put it in a cage…for curiosity sake. It was a beautiful living creature whose life I cut short by my negligence. The next morning I went to see if it was still where I left it …and it was gone…I knew it was unable to fly away…sadly I walked away… knowing I had destroyed a living creatures ability to take care of itself. A part of me was left behind. Marilyn Dixon Pfanstiel

Emerging Courageous Online Magazine Featured Story
How God uses suffering to strengthen us in “Punishment or Privilege” by Pam Morgan
http://www.geocities.com/emergingcourageous/stories/June2003/punishment.htm

Featured Poem in Emerging Courageous Online Magazine
relating to overcoming obstacles leading to healing and strength:
“You don’t have to be Superman to be a Hero” by Ruth Gallant
http://www.geocities.com/emergingcourageous/poetry/May2003/hero.htm

  From the Mailbag: “Keep Emerging Courageous” Brian G. Jett

 Quote worth sharing:
 “When all is said and done, the unselfish acts of what we have done without asking for anything in return, will have said it all.” Brian G. Jett

We are a part of all life…protect it…
Marilyn Dixon Pfanstiel, Editor [email protected]
www.emergingcourageous.com