The Year of the Butterfly
David DeAngelo uses a great metaphor to explain the process of change.
He explains that before anything happens the person is like a caterpillar. The are vulnerable to attack, moving about slowly, and inelegantly. They have a fairly limited outlook on life. The are restricted to the branches they can climb, and the ground. A lot of caterpillars get picked off, and don’t make it any further in their life cycle. In terms of an individual, they stay at that level, not moving further. But if the caterpillar survives for long enough, all of a sudden one day something happens!
Beyond the little caterpillar’s control, he starts to spin himself a cocoon. He struggles and fights and wriggles and squirms as he build this cocoon. He compresses, he expands. He does what ever it takes for him to get inside this cocoon. He doesn’t know what will happen, but he knows he has to do it.
He sits within the cocoon, and begins to change. He is vulnerable. He is so vulnerable. But he is also protected. He sit in his on turmoil, and he suffers. But he is changing. He is growing. He is no longer what he was, but he is not yet what he will be. He starts to see and understand what he was, and he begins to get an inkling of what he is becoming.
He is really changing now. He is changing physically. He looks different. He feels different. He knows he is close to the end. Close to the rebirth. But if he is cut out of his cocoon, if someone helps him out too much, instead of just protecting him, he will come out as this changed being, this beautiful butterfly, but he won’t be able to fly, and will die on the branch, as this beautiful creature who is supposed to be fluttering about in the environment.
Then something happens, the caterpillar-come-butterfly is now ready to burst out of it’s cocoon. He makes the move and cracks the cocoon. He struggles out of the tiny crack, making it bigger as he goes, squeezing all of the fluid out of it’s crumpled wings. Now this beautiful butterfly sits there, and waits for it’s wings to unfurl. It is at it’s most vulnerable right now. It can be picked off so easily. It can’t run. It can’t hide.
If it’s wings expanded, and it survives the time of waiting, then does it’s life really begin. Then can it flutter and soar to it’s hearts content. It can feast on the nectar of flowers, and see the whole from a whole new place. It’s beauty is revered by others, and it is smiled upon.
Last year was my year in the cocoon. This year, is my first year as a butterfly. Bring it.
Simon Lawry
