Transformation: What do You Intend?

The metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly is one of the most astounding, surprising, and fascinating transformations in the natural world.  Three things stand out about this incredible transformation.

            First, everything that makes the butterfly already exists within the caterpillar.  O.K., I know, I know, not the food it eats and all that stuff.  All of the genetic material making the butterfly, all the DNA and all the parts, like the wings and the very different-looking body are all contained within the caterpillar.

If you did not know about metamorphosis, you might be inclined to say, “There is no way that ‘slug’ of a caterpillar will look and behave like a butterfly.”  You might believe they were two different creatures.  And you would miss this very important lesson:  The butterfly already exists within the caterpillar, which leads us to a second important idea.

            The caterpillar must knit its own cocoon.  It cannot waddle up to another butterfly just emerging from its cocoon and say, “Can I borrow your cocoon?”  In fact, if the caterpillar does not knit its own cocoon, it will never become the butterfly.  It must do its own work.  The caterpillar determines whether it becomes what it was naturally intended to become.  It is responsible for its destiny.  This leads us to the third important idea.

            The caterpillar must struggle if it is going to become the butterfly.  If you were to see a caterpillar, now butterfly, in its cocoon just beginning to emerge, you would see it struggling to get out.  If you had a little knife and said, “You know this butterfly needs some help getting out of this cocoon, so I’ll just take my knife and cut open the cocoon just a little bit to make it easier,” you would find the butterfly’s wings would not correctly form.  The actual struggle of the emerging butterfly serves to make the butterfly fully what it is intended to be and do what it is intended to do.  Is struggle necessary?  Well, necessary or not, it is a reality in a world of entropy.  Anything of Greatness will entail struggle.  Without the struggle, no butterfly.  And without butterflies, beauty in this world is lost, not to mention all of the other organisms relying on the butterfly so they can thrive, becoming what they are intended to be.

Do you intend to transform?  Just like the caterpillar to butterfly, we must accept that everything we need to become who we truly are is within us already.  We must knit our own cocoon.  We are gong to have to intentionally initiate and do the work.  We are going to have to confront and go through struggle to be transformed.  To become fully who you are on this journey of life, to bring to our community and world what only you can uniquely bring, you must decide to live the transformed life of your dream, believe it lies within you already, do the work, and embrace the struggle.  We're waiting for you!  We need you!  So, what do you intend?