Introduction

Welcome to the May 2012 issue of Touch: The Journal of Healing.  Just as the caterpillar was once an egg, so too was the butterfly once a pupa.  As it traveled along its path of transformation, the egg went through many changes, each a necessary step so that it could pass from one stage of development to the next.  With one final push, a butterfly emerges from its cocoon to break from its bonds to the past.

This final stage requires a moment of rest as the wings unfold, dry, and are tested before their first flight.  It is in such moments of vulnerability that stories are born, half recollecting what has just been endured and half awakening to what could not have been imagined before.  So too when faced with illness or turmoil, it may seem insurmountable and unending.  But life pushes us beyond our past into a new emergence.

The miraculous story that nature tells us each time an egg becomes offspring can be found even in our own words, when patient becomes survivor and hope becomes a new chance at growth.  Who knows where life may take us on the next winds of change.  But along the way, we can wonder at the beauty of each voice that tells of a unique experience of transformation.

This issue of Touch: The Journal of Healing begins our 4th year of publication.  And a new year brings new changes to the journal format.  We are pleased to announce that Christine Klocek-Lim, a gifted poet and long-time contributor to the journal, will be this year's Poet In Residence.  Through a series of essays and poetic examples, Christine will take us into the process of writing about personal transformation.  She will explore some of the essential elements that make poetry not just a form of personal reflection but an art form that brings people together.  We are excited to have Christine join us this coming year, and we look forward to her Touch.

Thank you for resting with us a moment and reading the stories of our many gifted contributors who have dared to write about their own breaking open of the chrysalis of life.

O.P.W. Fredericks, Editor

Daniel Milbo, Assistant Editor