You know when it’s no longer “business as usual.” The old way doesn’t serve you any more.
I think of the pupa (caterpillar) that eventually packs itself into a tiny cocoon.
The caterpillar (worm) already has the genetic blueprint within it for the butterfly the day it hatches from a tiny egg. The way of that worm form is to grovel. There is no outward evidence that the worm will one day take to the skies and drink the dew of flowers.
Yet the design of the butterfly is inherent, it is embedded in the deepest genetic code. The pre-butterfly worm is guided by intuition as to when its time for transformation has come. No alarms go off, no one calls to remind the caterpillar that transformation is imminent.
The mid-life caterpillar seeks a sheltered place to bury itself in a thin protective chrysalis. Deep within itself, the worm surrenders to the reordering of its organism. It becomes a gelatinous soup of itself. It is in between. It cannot rush the process. It surrenders to the higher order of the “The Design.”
The blueprint builds itself from within.
The new organism is from the same genetic soup as the old, but it is different now. The butterfly is no longer served by the way of the worm. The lowly earth-clinging has no place in the life of the newly formed creature that emerges. Her delicate wings unfold with only the assistance of time, design, and gravity; and she emerges alone. There are seldom onlookers for this part of the process–it usually happens in the safe and secret recesses of nature.
There is no instruction booklet on how to be a butterfly, no metaphoric hand holding. All that remains is a continued surrender to the process, a trust in the encoding, an allowance of the unfolding.
If you are stuck in the middle – no longer who you were, but not yet what you are becoming then it is perhaps time for closure and transformation. There is no longer room for doubt and self-abandonment. Those ways are behind you now. That was the way of the worm. It was the worm that groveled for life’s crumbs. That season was a part of your process. Now you are in the metamorphosis. Release the shape and form of the worm, surrender to the higher order. Your wings are forming, taking shape, hardening, preparing. Trust these wings. Your organism has been reorganized. Chrysalis is your transition. Flight is imminent As you let go of the ways of the worm, you are learning now the ways of the butterfly. Instinct is the great guide of the natural world. Allow instinct and intuition to guide you through the process of deepening, reordering, emerging, and ultimately taking flight.
