If you could, would you take anything you’ve done back in your life?  I think I would … from minor to major things.  A couple of days ago I came across this praying mantis outside our door.  He looked so ebullient and I suppose that is what caught my attention.  A short distance away from him was a shell of his former self.  I mean that literally, as I hope you will enjoy comparing the split picture above.  My little girl and I were fascinated and we began to Google praying mantises.  I have long enjoyed studying the intricate shells of cicadas, but I believe they only shed once.  To my surprise I read that mantises shed six times until they become fully mature.  Each time that praying mantis emerges from its cocoon, s/he is better equipped to deal with life.  The five-star American General of the Army and Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur (who played a prominent role in the Pacific during World War II) said, “Life is a lively progress of becoming.”  What do you want to become?  I have many things … a better person, a better Christian, a better wife, a better mother, a better friend, a better advocate, and so much more.  I believe I have said here before that my daddy used to say the two saddest words in the English language were, “If only.”  While we cannot change our past, I believe we can determine the shape of our future.  The biggest part for me is in letting go.  I want to shed my defensiveness, forget about the names I have been called and the people who have hurt me so deeply.  I like the praying mantis for several reasons:  it is a visual reminder by a living creature to pray, with each struggle it becomes stronger, and when it sheds its skin it does not look back at what it once was … instead, it revels in the next chapter of its life.  I aspire to be like the mantis, to strive forward, and to achieve the process of becoming.