Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Serenity Prayer Medallion. |
This is a medal I found years ago. I just happened to open a drawer last night and there it was. I don't remember now where I originally found it or when. It was probably a decade or two ago, but last year I posted the words of the prayer in one of my posts.
Recently I received a note from a frequent blog contributor who found the prayer very helpful for her and her family. She made a bookmark with the prayer on it and sent one to me. She told me how meaningful the prayer was for her family. I now have that bookmark in a book I am reading on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essene community that inhabited the Qumran area before the Christian era and up to about 70 AD.
Some people call it coincidence, chance or luck, while others think it is the intentional act of a greater intelligence., but things can show up at just the right time. If you are a believer, you might think everything has a purpose, and all things work together for good even if you don't understand how at the time.
I received the note and bookmark just before a very challenging time for my family. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Then last night I opened the drawer and there was the medal that I had not noticed for a long time. Like I said, I don't remember when I found it, and I don't know if I ever posted the medallion before. I couldn't find it but I did find where I posted the prayer. back in 2021.
Yesterday I talked about butterflies in my post, and when I oopened the drawer and found the medal last night, I noticed something that I did not remember - on the side opposite the prayer is a butterfly.
I've been thinking lately about how the butterfly lifecycle is like a resurrection. And today is Good Friday. Recovering lost items from the earth, reminds me of resurrection too.
Butterfly caterpillars create a chrysalis and hang for a specific period of time in the chrysalis before emerging in an entirely new form. They then hand until their wings are unfolded and become hardened before flying off.
Unlike the caterpillar which eats a specific plant (Monarch eggs are laid on milkweed leaves and that is what the caterpillars eat, and zebra longwings and fritillaries, are laid on and the caterpillars eat passion flower plants), the caterpillars eat leaves, but the butterflies eat nectar. The zebra longwing, however, can eat both nectar and pollen. It is unusual in that way. But the point is, there is a very complete change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, and not only does the butterfly fly get wings, but becomes a very different type of animal. It is really a very remarkable transformation.
Finds can be personally meaningful. This medal was not only meaningful to me in a variety of ways, it was also very meaningful to the blog contributor, who once again passed it on to me at a very significant time. And then, very coincidentally (or so it would seem) the medal once again emerged and showed itself with an additional coincidence of timing.
Digging up a lost find is something like a resurrection. A find had a previous life. It was a part of someone else's life. It had a meaning for them. I'll never know exactly why the serenity prayer medal was being carried by the person that lost it, but it probably had a meaning for them. And I'll never know exactly why the medal shows a butterfly, but I can guess. The designer had a reason, and maybe it was the same meaning I saw in it.
You can wonder, what the medal meant to the person who lost it. Not only did the medal mean something to the person who lost it, but there was a designer and manufacturer who knew that someone would find it meaningful enough to purchase, own, and maybe carry.
Before I dug up the medal, there were others, and I don't know how many, that touched that medal. It meant something to each of them, but after I dug it up, it is being posted, and the message is being passed on again.
It is obvious enough that when you unearth an object, it had at least one previous owner, but you never know how many people were touched by it. And after you dig up the object, it becomes a part of your life, and likely many more lives.
The Serenity prayer, after being posted in the blog, touched at least one reader and the members of her family. The reader returned the message to me at a significant time, and here I am talking about it again. So the message, like found objects in general, can continue to connect and be passed on.
Meditate on your finds. Let your mind wander. What does the object mean to you. What did it mean or what might it mean to someone else.. Consider where it might have been, the meaning, and where it might go in the future.
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Reinhold Neibuhr is given credit for the serenity prayer, which became popular through Alcoholics Anonymous.
I remember finding another medal bearing the serenity prayer in a lake in Minneapolis. I remember wondering when I found it if it was thrown in the lake or if it was just lost.
I just found that one in an old post from treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com. Here is the photo from that post. It doesn't have a butterfly on it.
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| Alcoholics Anonymous Medallion. |
This side reads: To thine own self be true. And, Unity, Service, Recovery.
The III, as I recall, indicates the stage of the program completed.
The other side has an AA and the serenity prayer. Also notice, that unlike the one with the butterfly, this one has a hole for suspension.
See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: Search results for AA alcoholics anonymous medallion
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
Hooray. The predictions are showing the possibility of a 4 to7 foot surf in the near future. Hope that actually happens.
The tides are better now. We had a full moon last night.
Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox.
Blessed Good Friday to all.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net