When I was a little girl in second grade, I found a fuzzy caterpillar one day on the playground. I decided to keep him as my pet and put him in my little fish shaped change purse. I put a little grass in there to feed him as I figured that would do the job of food and zipped up the fish. I remembered the little guy about a week later when I found the fish in my desk. I unzipped the fish lips to find something really scary. Much to my shock, the caterpillar was gone and there was just a bunch of fuzzy white threads wrapped up in a corner! It scared the hell out of me whatever it was and I quickly zipped the fish back up. But, to my amazement, a few days later, I peeked into the fish lips and there it was... the most beautiful butterfly! I was eight years old and floored! It was magic! No one had told me this scary thing would turn into a butterfly! No one told me of this metamorphosis from a fuzzy caterpillar into a cocoon and finally into the beautiful butterfly that flew out into the light of that day. The change in that little change purse was unimaginable!
I feel like the journey of the chrysalis is where we are today. We are scared, uncertain, Covid is rising and we want to be done with it NOW. But it seems we have to go through such time as the chrysalis and it can't be rushed. The life we have known is over. And we are not sure yet who we are becoming. All we know is that there is something calling us to change and each of us must make the journey alone from within individually until we emerge into the light of the new day.
Fear not though! Soon enough we will become that butterfly! See, I think not only do we want to STAY alive during this most unprecedented time in history, but we want to FEEL alive like never before. Spirit has given us a universal time out that I am calling in my Instagram tv channel videos, COVIY- Your Creative Oasis for a Valuable and Imaginative YEAR. I know we want this over now, we want to go unmasked into public places, but we have to think of the greater reward in the long run....the flight of the butterfly. That can't be rushed.
So how do we get through this time not only saving our lives and those of others, but not losing our minds in the process?
By getting curious about who we are. By knowing that we can and will do this with fierce grace. To CREATE. Write, journal, collect poetry. Collage. Dance. To share with others our journey. To tell our stories. Play music as loud as you like. Plant flowers. Ask yourself, "who do you think you are?". And then write about it.
We are doing something FAR more powerful than wearing a mask and staying home. We are saving lives. We are preparing for that change purse to open. We are becoming.
Spin your silken threads, you maverick chrysalis, you.
Nancy + Team Sweetbird