Logos, Butterflies, and Rebirth

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly," - Richard Bach.
For most of my adult life I've identified with the butterfly.  Mostly, I think, because butterflies are so beautiful, but they don't start out that way.  They start out as sometimes ugly crawly worms called caterpillars.  Some of those caterpillars are very colorful and maybe even can be called beautiful.  But to me, they were something I did not want to get too close to.  (Except wooly worms, which as a kid I thought were quite fun.)  The metamorphosis that takes place when a caterpillar makes and enters its cocoon or chrysalis and emerges as a beautiful moth or butterfly, to me is amazing.

There are many times in a person's life that we might think we have reached the end of our world.  Divorce, death, job losses, evictions, health crises, just to name a few.  But we live on.  Sometimes we wonder how we are ever going to get through it.  Romance scams can cause much devastation to a person's life in ways it is hard to understand unless you have gone through it yourself.  There is a point in the grieving process where you feel like your life is over, all hope is gone.  Yes it is the end of the world, in your heart anyway.

We've chosen the butterfly as part of our logo at least in part because we want people to know that, as bad as it all may feel right now, we are going through our own metamorphosis as we heal from the damage done by these scams.  There is new life out there on the other side of the grief.  And that new life is beautiful.  No matter what any of us has been through in our lives, we've somehow made it through to something new.  The healing that can take place through meeting others who understand because they have gone through it too is a rebirth.  It changes victims into survivors.

The loss of our chat room three weeks ago took many of us into our own new grieving process and creation of our temporary chrysalis or cocoon.  During that group metamorphosis came the birth of our new website and chat room.  We really hope we can continue here to do the work that we did before.  With all our hearts, we want to share our experience, strength, and hope with all who need us.  CP