christian combinations: short stories; butterfly burdens & the butterfly grief group

Creative, inspirational short story writer, Melanie Schatzel, M.Ed. is offering, ＂Christian Combinations＂ to her beloved readers as a traditional paperback option of her reader’s favorite short stories, ＂Butterfly Burdens＂ and ＂The Butterfly Grief Group＂. First published as Ebooks, these two stories have touched the hearts of readers. Based on the same theme of grief and mourning, both books explore a different approach to managing grief and redefining one’s self after a significant loss. ＂Butterfly Burdens＂ shares a story of a young mother who has lost her daughter. She is going through a divorce on the one year anniversary of her loss, which happens to be the tenth anniversary of her grandma’s death as well. Struggling to get emotionally through an overwhelmingly day, she hides herself in her bathroom. It is here she remembers a beloved childhood story read by her grandma about a blue morpho butterfly who accepts a special assignment from the Lord. Assigned to a specific daughter of God, the butterfly is to be readily available as an answer and a messenger of God’s love when the child prays for help. As the child ages, the burden bubbles seem to be of greater weight than those before. Eventually, the burdens become too much for the butterfly to carry in one bubble to deposit into the troubled waters pooling at the bottom of a special waterfall. The butterfly discovers he must return and carry the burden in multiple bubbles, but less often, and suddenly questions his purpose. Feeling in need of a butterfly of her own, the mourning mother climbs into a bubble bath just as her sister arrives to carry her through a simple adventure to help her feel the Lord’s love as well. ＂The Butterfly Grief Group＂ takes place years later. The mother in ＂Butterfly Burdens＂ is a writer suffering writers block after her beloved sister is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Upon her sister’s death, the writer receives three gifts: a journal, an invitation to The Butterfly Grief Group, and her sister’s beloved therapy horse, Hope. Attempting to keep a promise, the writer decides to use her new journal to write to her sister about each day she attends the grief’s group. Discover the writer in this new chapter of her life as she mourns her sister’s death while discovering a new pathway filled with hope, charity, and the Lord’s grace.