More Monarch Musings

I have had a few more thoughts about “monarchs as vocation”. Over the years at my work, whenever someone retires and we have a party for that person, I've wondered what my "legacy" would be. The Covey question. Years ago, when I started to become known as the "butterfly lady", I thought "Phew, that'll be my legacy." At the time, it came out of insecurity, with me thinking that there wouldn't be anything else noteworthy to remember me by. They could just do the butterfly theme and be done with it. I know, these thoughts were totally ego-centric.

But this whole process has gotten me to deepen what it actually means. I have been feeling grateful that this is indeed a good legacy to "hang my hat on", if it means the Gospel in a metaphorical nutshell, in the way I described it in my original post. So it's moved a step away from me at centre to a desire to have Christ as centre.

Next was something I was going to add to the original post about monarch as vocation, in my stepping stones, but it seemed too small to note at the time. But on further reflection in recent weeks, the meaning of it has occurred to me. The story goes like this:

When I was a small child, on vacation in Ontario with my parents, I was in the washroom of our host's house, when I looked down at my shirt and saw a huge caterpillar on my shirt. I was terrified and must have screamed for someone to help me get it off. The shock and horror I felt stayed with me for some time, and remained with me as a vivid memory from childhood.

So you could say, this was the first time a butterfly visited me personally. I don't know what kind of butterfly it was, but I have been wondering on what the significance of this "first meeting" is for me. It was a butterfly in its "unevolved" or larva form, you could say. I generally believe that as the last child, I was kind of spoiled. In a way, the cruciform life of the Gospel which was to become my path, was not yet internalized. "Life is good when it is easy and without crosses", was perhaps the mantra that was handed me. So I've been reflecting that meeting this caterpillar was in a way my first meeting with the Gospel, and that it shocked me and scared me!! "Little larva Lydie", it was perhaps saying to me, "there are changes ahead, and much dying to self if you are to follow Christ." Well, this interpretation might be a bit out there, but I think it fits.