Changing Direction

I have been observing quite a few friends, family, and others in how they react to the death of a loved one or of someone they revere.  When someone you love is no longer here physically with you it's understandable to grieve and miss them deeply.  Maybe it's because of my faith but I truly believe that when we leave this Earth it is not final for us.  Death IS the great mystery isn't it?  Where do we go from here?  I am always much more sad for those who are left behind than for those who have passed on.  There is something else that I've often pondered.  If someone has passed on, why do people visit grave sites?  Isn't it the belief of many faiths that they are no longer in that body?  So why visit them there?  In remembrance of someone shouldn't you celebrate their birth date instead of having a somber commemoration on their death date?  Doesn't it make more sense to hang out in places where the person was in life, inste...

A couple of years ago someone gave me this story and I have never forgotten it. The message is a profound one and is the truth! 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 squeeze its body through the tiny hole. Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily but it had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man continued to watch it, expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge and expand enough to support the body, Neither happened! In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around. It was never able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand: The restricting cocoon and the struggle required by the butterfly to get through the opening was a way of forcing the fluid from the body into the wings so that...