GLACIAL RETURN TO STARDUST

Willard Dairy Barn, Greensboro, NC

I’ve been drawn to this abandoned dairy barn ever since I first noticed it not too far off the edge of an invasive movement of development in the area.  And I’ve always liked the notion that the wrinkles that we all acquire as we age can easily be compared to weathered barn wood that sells for a premium these days. 

There’s an unwritten truth in this world that life and nature can take all worldly things in an instant or at a glacial pace.  As late spring weather spawns severe storms with destructive tornados, anyone in their path knows just how true that is for both worldly possessions and sentient lives.  Nothing in this life lasts forever even though everything leaves at different and unpredictable times.

Modern science has determined that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.  And all matter is composed of the stardust of the validated Big Bang.  Billions of years have witnessed the creation of all matter on this planet, including this planet, and when matter disintegrates back into the stardust of creation, new life emerges once again. 

Perhaps that’s why I’m perpetually drawn to observe and commune with this silent sentinel of the country every time I pass by to observe the changing skyline overhead and the pasture grasses at its open doors.  Hawks glide overhead and have found refuge in the adjoining twin silos along with all varieties of woodland creatures that have burrowed their way under the damaged roof. 

If nature has its way, another decade will pass before the glacial transformation will be complete.  But I fully expect to drive by any day now only to observe the total annihilation of the dairy farm to make way for hundreds of apartment units on the site in the name of progress.  Maybe that’s why I feel compelled to document its life while most of the stardust is still intact along with mine.   

 

HAPPINESS IS LIKE A BUTTERFLY

RESTING BUTTERFLY I

RESTING BUTTERFLY II

If you Google “Happiness” on the internet, which is where I get a lot of my information these days, you will quickly find a quote which folks have used in various forms from Henry David Thoreau.  Thoreau has written that “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”

Different Native American tribes interpret butterflies in their own way, but generally, they're thought to represent change and transformation, comfort, hope and joy. 

 I remember chasing after Swallowtail butterflies on their annual migrations and just when you get close enough, they casually move along on the summer breeze.  I suspect there are childhood memories of many adults doing the same thing and learning the same lesson.  And if we’ve run the gauntlet of life on this planet for enough years, it’s very easy to relate that experience to the concept of happiness that also can be very elusive. 

Our culture considers the path to happiness strewn with all imaginable sorts of worldly stuff which the Mad Men of Madison Avenue subliminally and not so subliminally barrage us with over the course of almost every waking hour on the planet. One of Best Buy’s ads said it all; “I want it all and I want it now!”  We’re definitely an “instant gratification” society.  Don Draper of the 1960’s Mad Men advertising series wrapped things up neatly when he made a pitch to a CEO for their business; “What is happiness?  It’s the moment before we need more happiness.”  Advertisers and salespersons know that looking for happiness in all the wrong worldly places can be very short lived!

But if we simply go about our life following the greatest commandment which Jesus proclaimed of loving our creator and our brothers and sisters, the butterfly will glide in and sit on our shoulder.  We can experience a lasting happiness in life when we help someone who has no possibility of returning the favor.  If we do something for someone and expect something in return, we’re doing business!  This may bring a temporary happiness, but not the internal joy that has lasting power in our life.

We will face difficult circumstances in the course of a life that are beyond our control with one exception—how we respond.  And we should be careful not to confuse temporary, external circumstance, happiness with eternal, internal, joy that reveals which gods we worship in life.  We were created to be forever joyful which I consider to be a more informed extension of happiness that will dwell peacefully in our heart.