I am watching caterpillars that have attached to my back porch make their way into their cocoons to begin their great metamorphosis into the Monarchs they will soon become. As with all that I see in the natural world, I cannot help but sense the map these displays of Creation lay out for me, and for any of us who choose to see things beyond the spoon-fed narratives of a world that would have us dull down, line up and fit in at any cost.
In other words, those of us who want something more than just standing in line waiting to die. Or be approved of. Or thought of as good people. Those of us feeling called and pulled and shaped and molded by Something that wants only for us to express our soul’s longing to create itself here in all of its glory, for all of the world to see.
This is no easy task.
Years ago, my yoga teacher said that our soul does not care about our job, our degrees or what society thinks we should be. It cares only to be itself. To do otherwise is what causes our illnesses, our discontents, our regrets and dissatisfactions. I remember thinking at the time, how very, very liberating. And how very, very terrifying!
It occurs to me for the very first time in writing this, the significance of the word “Monarch” that we say so often when referring to a butterfly. It means, A person who reigns over a kingdom. A sovereign ruler. One that holds a preeminent position or power. With a monarchy being defined as, undivided rule.
It’s all there in the name of this majestic and migratory creature that has set up shop on my back porch to begin the process of taking its maiden flight. Far greater even than traveling from North to South across a vast land mass. For the journey from being a land crawler to a winged creature of the air is truly the domain of the soul and can only happen in a sovereign and undivided being.
As I watch the metamorphosis, I am struck by the deep and profound stillness it exudes as it makes its way into its temporary shroud. One night I could literally feel the way it was turning into itself. Stilling itself. All of this internal stilling being the basis for what was to come next.
We could take a page from this lovely creature who literally embodies the blueprint for how to transform into its fullest soul-filled expression by allowing ourselves to court more stillness in our own lives. A kind of death-filled stillness that allows us to leave behind what’s done, in favor of what’s coming.
Even if we don’t know what that is. More to the point, how could we? Just as the caterpillar cannot know what is in store, our human minds cannot know what the soul has in store for us. And yet, somewhere deep within, the blueprint is all laid out for us to be that preeminent power in our own lives.
It is just waiting for us to get quiet enough to allow it to unfold.