Transformation – giving up the caterpillar suit.

Monarch Butterfly Site

"Every exit is an entry somewhere else." - Tom Stoppard

"Perhaps the Egyptians chose the beetle as a god of creation, and not some more noble creature, because that lowly image hints at the possibility that transformation begins at the bottom level and attains the highest."  — Normandi Ellis in Dreams of Isis

“One cannot become a butterfly by remaining a caterpillar.” ~Anonymous

I’ve been sitting on my porch mourning the loss of my Ash.  There’s a circle of dirt where she used to stand.  The leaves in my neighborhood are turning orange and burnt red; I miss seeing hers turn yellow.  I wonder where my winter bird feeders will hang without her outstretched arms.  And, know that next summer my house will be hotter without her shade.    I wonder who will take her place.

In my front bed garden, there’s a lone Monarch dancing between the last butterfly bush flowers and the browning white coneflowers.  I think, “Honey you aren’t going to make it to Mexico.”  I know it isn’t thinking this; it isn’t like me who’d be obsessing over these thoughts like wondering if I had enough money for gas and snacks to make it to Mexico and did I remember to pack my passport and contact lens case.  No.  I know the Monarch is living for the moment like it did when it hung up-side-down in that dark cocoon.   Because death is inevitable; everything dies.  It’s part of the great carbon nitrogen cycle.    

Part of magical living is to gracefully revolving around the transformation cycle.

~#~

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” ~Maya Angelou

“What the caterpillar perceives is the end, to the butterfly is just the beginning.” ~Anonymous

~#~

Admit it.  When you see this card, you hear the sound effects from the Psycho knife scene (Hitchcock, 1960) Your stomach lurches and you want to run in the opposite direction.   We see ”Death” as the end, a termination, going bust with no more tomorrows or the final words seen after the last paragraph in a book that we loved reading;  that cake that got lost in the rain and you’ll never have that recipe again (Summers, 1978); or that beloved sweater that has a hole in it; or trying to figure out what to do now that your retirement funds have bottomed out.  The same can be said anytime we have to change, we mourn the loss of doing something familiar and it’s hard to let go.  It's hard to let go of our caterpillar suit.

But death isn’t really like that.  It’s all in how your see it and how you deal with it. A CCWWW knows it is healthy to mourn the loss and is respectful of how painful change may be.  But, they also know death is about an entrance to something new.  It’s about transformation and hope like the phoenix rise from the ashes. A CCWWW can see change as the next step to a life make over like getting a new hairdo or a new clothing style.  A CCWWW sees themselves as a forever student in magical living and part of growing includes changing in mind, body and spirit.

~#~

Changing Woman

By Annie Finch

If we change as she is changing,

if she changes as we change

(If she changes, I am changing)

Who is changing, as I bend

down to what the sky has sent us?

(Is she changing, or the same?)

~#~

Joseph Campbell stated,  “We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world.”  A CCWWW knows this and tries to live out their life in a different way.  They work out of their heart versus their mind and ego.  They live by knowing themselves and in a way that doesn't hurt others or the enviornment.  A CCWWW knows that by healing themselves they heal the world.  Or as Mahatma Gandhi said: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

~#~

NOTE:  A CCWWW knows sometimes it is hard to grieve loss alone.  Sometimes change brings about depression and you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom.  A CCWWW knows that as a wise leader who sets examples by showing others that it’s okay to seek out help from a licensed counselor or social work.  A CCWWW also knows the local hotline or can share the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (24/7) 1-800-273-TALK(8255).