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

Several decades ago, I saw this cartoon posted on a friend’s refrigerator that I still remember like it was yesterday:

Two caterpillars were talking to one another, crawling on the ground in the way caterpillars do. They both had their eyes pointed upward. One caterpillar is talking to the other, “You’ll never catch me up in one of those things.” What the caterpillars were looking at was a soaring, magnificent butterfly.

“Never catch me up in one of those things.” Interesting, and revealing, words.

It must be hard to be a caterpillar. I mean there is no precedent in his or her nature to understand what it’s like to be a butterfly. S/He must go through the quite profound process of metamorphosis, in all likelihood not understanding what in the world is going on.

Just like most of us right now. Mind boggled and soul-bedraggled, most of us can’t easily see ourselves transcending our current situations in any meaningful way. Chaos, confusion, uncertainty—the list goes on and we are only three weeks into 2021. And even if you’re at your wit’s end and at the limits of your mental and physical endurance right now, you know, in all likelihood, there will be future demands, probably even more demanding. No reclining back on some cloud eating our favorite chocolates, peering down watching the show. NO! We are in it, every minute. From somewhere, the energy and hope to make it through one more day, must arrive.

transformation (n.)

c. 1400, from Old French transformation and directly from Church Latin transformationem (nominative transformatio) “change of shape,” noun of action from past-participle stem of transformare “change in shape, metamorphose.”

And I like to believe that I cannot only “make it through” but as the day unfolds, I might even come up with a comforting idea, a fresh approach, something, anything positive in the middle of, as one my clients recently put it, aptly explaining motherhood in COVID times: “enormous heavy burdens that constantly make me feel entirely overwhelmed and considerably under-prepared.”

I imagine that’s how caterpillars feel in the unknown of their dark cocoons. Of, course, they can sleep through their entire ordeal…or, most of it. It’s when they start waking up that they must realize: this isn’t going to be easy. That’s when I imagine they hurt the most. The panic of finding themselves in such a confined space—alone and away from all their friends. There’s no guide for this from their comfortable past life as a caterpillar. Noticing the faint light coming through the tight enclosure, I can imagine the tiny caterpillar mind thinking, “Now what?” Pondering this for some time—maybe. Eventually the will or some primordial instinct must kick in to start the arduous process of breaking free, not knowing at all how to get out nor what shape it will be in if it somehow manages to get out.

transform (v.)

mid-14c., “change the form of” (transitive), from Old French transformer (14c.), from Latin transformare “change in shape, metamorphose,” from trans “across, beyond” (see trans-) + formare “to form” (see form (v.). Intransitive sense “undergo a change of form” is from 1590s. 

Yet, it persists. Driven by a mysterious Vital Force it knows fully and well, there is a new world to explore from an entirely new perspective—from the heights of sky. Somewhere in its process of trans-forming in that liminal, scary place, it senses a new way to move—with effort still, yes, but now anticipating, knowing much more ease awaits, only a few more struggles away. And then, perhaps on the brink of giving up, an opening appears. New air activates the longing to move, providing that final push.

An unknown, yet familiar Creative Source has provided wind and now this new creature knows exactly what to do as it moves out of its quarantine, discovering wings to fly freely, efficiently, elegantly through space and time. 

I don’t think butterflies ever look back. Do you?

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The caterpillar’s transformation brings to mind these ponderings:

• What shape do we want to be in?
• When we and our loved ones are in great shape, what does that look like? feel like?
• How do we stay informed to reform wisely?
• What form/s use our unique abilities to assist in transforming our world?

transformation (n.) 

a qualitative change

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Copyright, Gloria DeGaetano, 2021. All rights reserved.