Metamorphosis
July 2008
If
you receive guidance that compromises your
physical comfort,
would you be willing to follow it?
- Caroline
Myss
The translucent butterfly
(pictured above) has become a mascot for my own path of
trusting the promise of brilliant living. Allow her
journey to shed some light:
One day a lone
caterpillar was suddenly called. She was told by the
force of her very nature to retreat into solitude and
containment in order to experience a death of one self
into another.
In saying yes, she was called to a resting place -
suspended in thin air. There she began to shed her
skin. It was frightening! Who would she be without it?
The form she once knew was replaced by a shell and she
was enveloped by darkness and paralysis. She couldn't
move. Where exactly was she? And what had
happened to all the light?! She hung, suspended between
two lifetimes within one. She waited in the dark, at
times feeling very afraid and alone - wondering why she
had agreed to such a calling. Yet all the while, she
felt a spark of promise whispering from deep, deep
within.
Over time, the light inside her very core - once faint
- became a wellspring of divine light. It kept her warm
and safe as she felt who she once was dissolve and
transform. It was scary to be stripped of her very
caterpillar nature and all that she once knew. She
wondered what might become of her...and what would be
her place in the world? At times she fought the urge to
break free from this cocoon that surrounded her. To
squirm back out into the world as she once was. Yet
each time she tried, the path was denied. She knew that
in heeding that first call, there was no turning back.
In time, a potential deep within her pushed its way to
the surface. She was ignited by possibility and an
outrageous freedom to take flight. And all in one
miraculous instant she felt death and new life merge.
She pushed, she squirmed, and she broke free - soaring
into the unknown.
Like the caterpillar,
sometimes we are called to be born anew - towards the
next grandest vision of how we might best serve the
world. Our interconnectedness to All That Is becomes
apparent - if we are humble enough to heed the call.
Paradoxically, with each of our mini-incarnations we
come to understand that to live and make choices in
authentic self-love is far from a selfish pursuit. By
following the compass of our soul, we give our best to
the world around us.
For some of us, it is a call we will receive many times
in our life. Letting go of what was once a comfortable
existence and accepting the promise of something that
requires we change who we think ourselves to be. And it
usually requires we (temporarily at least) surrender
the physical comforts that we once knew (relationships,
career paths, and sometimes the approval of friends and
family).
In fact, one of the most challenging aspects of a time
of transformation is the potent force of the unknown.
We wonder, "where did the light go?" as experiences
that once inspired us no longer ignite our soul...or as
those who once held us in high opinion question our
path of change. Yet the darkness and self-containment
is the greatest gift of all. It is by experiencing this
season in which we are cut off from the light sources
in our external world that we learn to tap Brilliance
and Guidance from within.
I encourage you to the heed the soulful call that comes
your way. A calling on the modern spiritual path is not
a booming voice from beyond. Instead it creeps in
through the cracks of our daily existence - through
physical or emotional imbalances that threaten us to
grow and change or continue on suffering.
And may more of us emerge from our cocoons with the
promise of the transluscent butterfly. May the wings
that carry our brilliance out into the world be clear
and transparent so that the glory of the True Source
might SHiNE through in our everyday flight.
Cracking Through My
Cocoon,
Candice
Click here to see a caterpillar's
journey to butterfly on
YouTube.
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