I was reading Thich Nhat Hahn’s words this morning of transforming the past. But are we not told we cannot undo the past? The past is transformed by how we respond to it in this moment, the present, now.  That thread led me to ponder how a baby learns to walk. They do not see the thuds and plops back to the earth their shaky legs create. Oh, there may be tears, bruises and owies, but sometimes they even laugh. Either way, they begin again. Something inside calls them to walk and they do. Today, I walk here and there without even giving it a thought. I am here and suddenly I am there and never do I recall the bumps, bruises, thuds, and plops of learning to walk. The past transformed in the present, this moment, now. Tis a whisper easily dismissed as the challenges today seem far greater than simply learning to walk. But if we truly knew and appreciated the intricacy of the muscles, brains, and total restructuring of how we see, move, and think that occurs when we learn to walk, is the difference that great?

The whisper made me sigh and then suddenly I thought of the orchid bud and wondered if it had opened. Had the bud learned to walk? Had the bud transformed the past of simply a seed and a bump into a gorgeous flower? And there she was. Oh yes, more opened than yesterday but today a gift I did not expect. My dog thought an intruder had come into the house; such was my squeal of delight. And then I simply sat and stared. Transforming the past in this moment now, is imprinted with and within the heart.