Muskegon Unity News
On Becoming a Butterfly - by Rev.John Williams...
In the darkest days of winter we see the beginnings of a new year. The sun is "reborn," and the days grow longer again. The seasons of nature flow naturally, on into the other; they are an example to us of the natural order of life. yet often we seem to dwell in one season or another, afraid to move on , afraid of change . In her little book, "Heart Warmers" - Helen Lesman says "...let me never be afraid of endings or beginnings. Teach me to embrace all of life with joy."
There is risk in embracing life, in embracing change (which is what life is). We many feel that if we move from on e season to the next we will lose something, leaving something valuable behind. The sad thing is, in the fear of loss, we have already lost what we are trying to hold onto. Everything in life has its season, it comes and goes, leaves and flowers. that's the nature of life. Even love, In an 1888 Cosmopolitan article, Dr. Martin Binder wrote that "It is neither cynical nor glib to describe love, like all of nature, as having its season. Even the loveliest living things regularly leave for a time...and with equal reliability return.
If we are to become butterflies we need to give up our attachments, our fear of endings and beginnings, our belief that any loss is permanent, our "caterpillar hood," or our view of life from the tiny perspective of the twig we are clinging to on a tiny patch of ground. It takes a major shift in consciousness. Chrysalis is more than just a change, it is a transformation. Every cell of what was once a caterpillar is transformed into the cells of a butterfly. The caterpillar doesn't just change, it literally dies and is reborn into something entirely different. Deep withing each one of us is a caterpillar longing to become (or in the process of becoming) a butterfly.
"One night in a dream, I saw a group of people. These people were deserving, lovable people. The problem was, they didn't know it. They were stuck, confused---reacting to some crazy stuff that happened long ago. They were running around in adult bodies, but in many ways they were still children. And they were scared. These people were so busy protecting themselves and trying to figure out what everything meant, they didn't know what they needed to do: relax, be who they were, and allow themselves to shine. They didn't know it was okay to stop protecting themselves. They didn't know it was okay to love and be loved. They didn't know they could love themselves. When i awoke, i realized I was one of them." - Melody Beattie
Its the season of awakening: mine, yours, all of ours. We are struggling to emerge from our cocoons of old, worn out beliefs. In a sense it is an individual battle, for if someone tried to help the butterfly to emerge from the cocoon, the butterfly will never fly. It needs the strength it gains from its struggle , and that strength must come from within, no without. That struggle is a metaphor for the quest of or love that Louise Hay speaks of so eloquently:
"It's what we all wanted when we were children - to be loved and accepted exactly as we were then, not when we got taller or thinner or prettier....and we still want it ...but we aren't going to get it from other people until we can get it from ourselves."
No one can love us our of our cocoons. No one can make us into butterflies. It's and inside job. In the quest for the Holy Grail, each of us like the Knights of the Round Table, enters into the deepest, darkest part of the forest alone. Each of us goes into the interior castle of our being to search out the truth.
We go back...and back...and back...until we discover the exuberant, unencumbered, delightful and lovable child that was, and still is , in us. And once we find it , we love and cherish it , and never, never let it go.
We say "Welcome home, by beloved child. Welcome home, you whom I have loved since the beginning. Welcome home, my cherished butterfly."
And then, out of the stillness and silence of knowing who we really are, we can fly above our self imposed limitations. We can fly on our new wings of truth, telling ourselves and all the world: "I am okay. I am fine just the way I am lovable, I am good enough. I am fine just the way I am." "And no body in all of Oz, no wizard that there is, or was, is ever gonna bring me down."
Have a wonderful season of growth, my beloved fellow butterflies.
Rev. John Williams.