Transformation ...... beautiful? or Painful?

Day 6 of #blog365 .... Ok Ok... I know, technically that was yesterday on the 6th January and we're now on the 7th.... but I'm figuring you might not really notice and I can write two blogs today to make up for running behind myself yesterday!

I was considering what to write about today and pulled out a card from my trusty "The answer is simple" deck.... a bit like reading and idiot's guide to the universal nudges when I'm simply not noticing the messages.

The card that came out was the "Start anew" card which depicts a caterpillar and butterflies.

Symbolic caterpillar meaning deals with pure potential. It has to do with the promise of new life indwelling their bodies. Eventually, that caterpillar is going to go into cocooning stage, after which it will birth into an entirely new creature (moth or butterfly).

What is the symbolism of the butterfly?
This animal is primarily associated with symbolism of change and transformation.

• Powerful transformation, metamorphosis in your life, personality
• Moving through different life cycles
• Renewal, rebirth
• Lightness of being, playfulness
• Elevation from earthly matters, tuning into emotional or spiritual
• The world of the soul, the psyche

A secondary meaning of the butterfly is about finding joy in life and lightness of being.

This card is so relevant for many reasons right now for many people. Firstly, of course most obviously we're at the start of a new year. A time when many of us make resolutions to detox, to loose weight, to get fit..... to make changes... you get the idea.

Secondly, for me I'm aware of changes going on around me for my friends and family, in businesses we work with and for myself to as our wedding approaches.

In truth of course we're in constant change, in fact one of the true constants of life is change.

Often change is though our own choice,  generally to feel better in some way, but just like the  caterpillar there is a price to pay to make that transformation. Whilst the end may be beautiful, as the late , great Dr Wayne Dyer mentions in the quote above, in order to transform we have to go beyond our current form, our beliefs about ourselves and what is... and isn't possible... to go beyond our comfort zone.
And that can be uncomfortable, it can be challenging, it can be painful.

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly".
Richard Bach

Unlike us humans, the caterpillar doesn't think , you know what this is just too damn painful, I'm going to give up. No.... it keeps with the process, it let's it's old body die and fall away .. and in that moment it  transcends all that it could have been into something more beautiful, more free that it could ever have imagined... it even sprouts wings for goodness sake!

• Of course we don't always choose change... sometimes it's thrust upon us.
• Someone dies (science tells us energy cannot be destroyed it can only change form, therefore as we are energy, it follows that just like the death of the caterpillar gives birth to the butterfly... death allows a new form...)
• A relationship ends (releasing us to find a new way of being, and in time a new relationship perhaps)
• We get made redundant (the gift from the universe of release, possibly with funds, to dream a new dream, to step into a new career perhaps, start your own business, find your dream job)
• The business we work in gets bought out ( allowing us to experience new ways of doing things, new  ideas, or to recognise just how far we've come and how we have a choice to feel the discomfort of transformation, with a hope of the new, or to take a new route, a new journey, to start an exciting adventure to new shores)

But we didn't choose it... it's a transformation that's thrust upon us. How then does it feel to work through the struggle.. to appreciate the journey.... to let go of the old and allow the new... as the  caterpillar into the butterfly?

"Everybody knows what a caterpillar is, and it doesn't look anything like a butterfly".
Lynn Margulis

No matter if you're setting out to make changes, or change has been thrust upon you, there is always a gift. there is always something beautiful awaiting new birth.

So my questions for you today:
What is the gift that is unfolding in your life?
Where is there need to push on through to get to the beauty of transformation?