My feet and my legs were tired, and I was wrapping up another day of eight hours of lecture with my graduate students. After almost 4 hours of Pathophysiology with my previous class, and four hours of Diagnostics in Primary Care with my higher level students, I am sure the students’ brains were fried. Slowly each student exited the room, as I gathered my belongings dreading the walk across the hot parking lot to my vehicle. However, before I could leave, my colleague who also happens to be the director of the program poked her head in the class room.

I was pleasantly surprised as she was definitely a positive end to a grueling day, and her smile made me smile. We engaged in small talk for a moment , but then she suddenly pointed out that there was a ginormous butterfly sitting on the window sill. Now, under any other circumstances there is nothing abnormal about a butterfly sitting on the window sill on a hot summer day in the South, but we were on the third floor of a very tall building.

Initially, it appeared as if the butterfly were not alive. It just sat there… still… but it’s colors were so beautiful that my colleague had to get a picture of it. She raced toward the window and began snapping pictures. I immediately joined her, and as I stood to her left side, it was as if the butterfly came to life. It clearly moved from her side of the window and clearly yet intentionally, re-perched itself directly in front of me as I leaned in closer to admire it as well. Suddenly, the creature began to feverishly flap it’s wings. It just wasn’t normal. It was like something out of a fairy tale.

“Oh my God!” I said to my friend. “What in the world? Do you think it’s trying to telling me something?”

At first she just stared. I think that that she was as surprised as I was. We both knew immediately that this encounter with nature on the third floor of the building was no coincidence. That amazing creature was  clearly trying to communicate with me. It was quite unnerving initially, because it went on for a minute, however, suddenly it appeared as if the butterfly knew he had accomplished what he came to do, and once again like something out of a fairy tale. He swirled away… yes I mean swirled! He flew in what appeared to be a beautiful figure eight and he was gone… again, it looked like something from Disney.

We both stood there for a moment.  “What the hell was that?” I asked with my potty mouth.
“I don’t know?” she replied, “but he definitely came here with a message just for you.”
“Did you get pictures?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied, “I’ll send them to you.”

I was in complete awe, and although she and I exited and did not speak of the encounter much more while leaving the building, I couldn’t wait to get home to look up what a butterfly encounter could mean. Honestly, this was the second strange encounter I had experienced with nature in past week. Only a week earlier, an Iris that I had planted twelve years ago, finally grew out of an old flower pot this year. I had not noticed it because another pot was obscuring the large bloom that had developed, but when I saw it, I was in awe and I immediately looked up the meaning that Iris’s can carry.

Just like the Iris, as soon as I arrived home, I looked up the meaning of butterflies and just like I thought. It could mean many things, but most of all– wonderful things. However, for the past month I have been studying and trying to follow the law of attraction. I have been trying to reach the highest and purest version of myself that I can be, and constantly working on emitting a constant state of positive energy. The growth of the Iris and now the visit from the butterfly are confirmation for me that everything is going to be okay and that God or the Universe, or whatever you believe ( I choose God) can sense the positive energy that I have been attempting to build in myself.

I have always had strange encounters like this happen in my life. It’s no wonder I am a fantasy writer, but these encounters are not fantasy… they are real… real life… my life… and for them, I know I am blessed. So I say to each of you, do not write off any unusual encounters with nature as coincidence. Just take a deep breath and connect because there is always a message waiting for you behind it all.

Be blessed,

It’s been a week since the devastation first hit our little piece of heaven in this corner of the world. Like many I sit in awe of the resilience of those in my community who have lost everything, but continue to keep pushing forward.  Now a week later, I sit in my home and listen as the rain which has so unwelcomely invited itself back into our lives… returns.  The stillness around me is eerie and I can only hear the pitter patter of the rain drops like the feet of an innocent toddler running about my yard and dancing on the roof of my home.

Usually, a day like today would be a perfect day for entering my fantasy world, and writing until my heart is content, but it is as if the characters in my head are aware that there are more pressing issues for me to address.  They sit quietly along with me  listening to rain, lamenting for those who lost their lives,  asking God to take care of those who the floods have ravaged, stolen their memories, and broken their spirits. So writing will have to hold for now, and the children at Saint Julianna’s have given me permission to leave them in freeze frame of chapter nine of my latest novel because South Carolina, my home, my love, my little piece of nirvana needs me more.

I have noticed as I grow older that my sense of obligation to those around me tugs at me strongly when something of this nature takes place in the world.  My first experience was September 11, 2001 better known to the world as 911. I was very young then, but I felt the desire to contribute or do something.  At the time, being a new mother, there wasn’t much I could do, but I remember finding  a legitimate charity on my dial-up internet ( at the time) and donating, just  to make sure  I helped at least one family in need.  That strong urge returned again during Hurricane Katrina, and along with some other nurses we helped those that were relocated to South Carolina with food and clothing as they arrived here in Columbia.

I originally came to Columbia to reinvent myself because of something that happened in my life that I thought was devastating.  I now humble myself because we should pray for the suffering of others and not ourselves, but that wisdom came with age.  This terrible flood that has ravaged South Carolina has brought back a sense of that obligation for me.  It took me many years to feel as if this part of South Carolina were my home, because although I was born and bred here, we tend to get comfortable with even the small towns that we were raised in. However, I now realize, while I thought I would be reinventing myself, God had an entirely different plan for my reinvention.

Although we are going through one of the most terrible and trying times of our lives as citizens of South Carolina, what I will say is that I would not want to be anywhere else in the entire world going through this.  As a South Carolinian, I proudly scream that regardless of our political differences, we love each other! We stick together, we help each other out, and those of us who are of the Christian faith are first and foremost Christians before we claim any affiliation with any political party.  Yes, this flood has put us in quite a state, but we are strong as a State, and we will survive this.

I thank God that my physical home has not suffered much from these floods, we noticed some small issue this morning, but there is devastation all around me and my heart aches all the same for those who have suffered true loss.  Thank you to our fellow Americans and those around the world who have stepped up to help us navigate the Chaos that the flood rains brought about. Thank you to my fellow citizens for loving and respecting one another.

Thank you to our Governor, mayor and other political leaders in our state, for knowing what true leadership is, and putting it into action that will produce results.  Thank you for keeping the politics at bay and unity on the forefront! Most of all thank you to the wonderful people of South Carolina for showing the world and setting an example once again as to how we should be there for one another and reminding everyone That…. WE ARE OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER!!!!

Be Blessed,