As some of you may know, we have had an unusually wet summer this year. The rain has created a bit of a 'Garden of Eden' effect in that anything you plant seems to grow overnight.
For example, we recently planted a couple of passion flower vines on the fence in front of our house. Within a month, the vines had already sent out tendrils that reached halfway across the fence...it was almost like you could see them grow. We chose these vines for a couple of reasons: they are Central Texas native and known for attracting butterflies.
As the rainy summer progressed, we saw many varieties of butterflies flitting about the vine and through the yard. We also saw many fat orange caterpillars lazily chewing the green leaves. Now, I know that caterpillars are the yin to the yang of the butterflies but they certainly didn't inspire in the same way, lol. Until one late afternoon.
One Friday I was coming home from an appointment and, as usual, had stopped to admire the butterflies playing around the vines. However, this time I noticed a caterpillar had hung itself upside down from one of the fence crossposts and was spinning itself into a cocoon. I watched for a few minutes and went inside to tell Keith. I felt like a 7 year old as I excitedly told him about the event.
Over the next week or so, the cocooned caterpillar twisted and turned each day as it grew wings and began the transformation to a butterfly. Early in the morning of day 10, I went outside to get the paper and noticed a fresh butterfly where the chyrsalis had been. The wings were dark and still wet. The butterfly seemed a little unsure of what the heck to do with them, but then a 'coach' flew by and I guess the secret of flight was shared.
Over the last month, a number of other chrysalis have appeared along the fence and we saw the process in many stages. I also learned that not all the caterpillars make the transition to butterfly. When the process is going right, the cocoon stays whitish and you see movement. When it goes wrong, the cocoon turns black and hangs heavy. It's always a little sad to see that.
It's a perfect example of what faith & fear is all about. The caterpillars enter the cocooning stage of their lifecycle out of pure instinct, they seek a way to leave the ground and fly closer to Source. However, once in their cocoons, they need faith that it will happen. Those who lose faith in the process and allow the fear of change to overtake them become stuck there. They cannot go back to being caterpillars and will never be butterflies.
How's that for a manifestation metaphor?
