“Empathy is the most mysterious transaction that the human soul can have, and it’s accessible to all of us, but we have to give ourselves the opportunity to identify, to plunge ourselves in a story where we see the world from the bottom up or through another’s eyes or heart.” – Sue Monk Kidd
I keep tripping and wandering back to foundations that have carried and anchored this soul for five plus decades – grace, seasons, empathy, connection, God, faith, joy, family, friends, character, delight, generosity, silliness, imperfection, laughter, resilience, worthiness, purpose, nature, struggle, waiting, patience, more patience, mystery and simplicity.
The past few weeks have been quite a ride for all of us. A roller coaster that has us loosely bound, uncertain whether the seat belt will hold, lonely, socially distanced and longing for connection, uncertain of the future, floundering in open space, unbound by a familiar busyness, confined to our quarters and becoming increasingly aware of what we can control and what we can’t control that we convinced ourselves in the recent past that we could control.
Our first response is to get off the ride and go back to the familiar. Don’t. Forge ahead confident that you and we as the collective whole have what it takes to move into the unknown, to reach deep within to the power that will carry us into a purposeful, burgeoning, creative and abundant near future. Hold tight and enter deep into the gifts of this uncertain time. Where we’ve been in the past won’t instruct us for our new normal. But the past has done its part to build our resilience, reserve and grit to enter the future capable to meet it completely.
This is fertile ground right now. Sacred actually – give it reverence, awe and respect. Cultivate the soil, plant the seeds and prepare for the hearty harvest. We are deep in butterfly work – the cocoon – dark, illusive, waiting, impatience, struggle, unfamiliar territory. Drop assumptions, past narratives and open your arms to the beautiful, dense and rich unknown!
The near future is filled and overflowing with abundance and fruition in due time. Let it play out and drop your preconceived, incorrect notions. You and we have no idea so let it present itself. The ground has been leveled so release the BS, your ego and arrogance to make room for this most excellent and fulfilling journey. Be open to new possibilities. The ones who are not predicting the unpredictable now, the ones who are willing to look at the world with new eyes, the ones who are doing the deep internal awareness and management work will survive, thrive and build the future.
In this very moment, we are in the cocoon on the journey to metamorphosis – the great transformation. And in the struggle, the laws of nature will unfold to transform the caterpillar to the butterfly.
In the past few weeks, many have been rallying to go online, to predict the future, to create virtual connection. The shallow efforts of panic shall fade away and be replaced with depth, meaning and rigor. One of the best learning methods that has existed for centuries is reading books – the classics mainly, which have stood the test of time. The most relevant book on “Butterfly Work” is Sue Monk Kidd’s When the Heart Waits.
Here are a few insights from her work:
“The True Self is not our creation, but God’s. It is the self we are in our depths. It is our capacity for divinity and transcendence.”
“God is offering an invitation. A call to waiting. A call to the mysteries of the cocoon.”
“And somehow the transformation you knew would never come, that impossible lumping of fresh life and revelation, does come. It manifests itself in unseen slowness.”
“The fullness of one’s soul evolves ever slowly. We’re asked only to go within to gestate the newness God is trying to form; we’re asked to collaborate with grace.”
“When the fullness of time comes a sacred voice at the heart of us cries out, shaking the old foundation. It draws us into a turbulence that forces us to confront our deepest issues. It’s as if some inner, divine grace seeks our growth and becoming and will plunge us, if need be, into a cauldron that seeths with questions and voices we would just as soon not hear. One way or another, the false roles, indentities and illusions spill over the sides of our life, and we’re forced to stand in chaos.”
While we have been lost and wandering aimlessly in open time, in remote work, in home schooling, in toilet paper supply angst, we are right in the middle of the mystery, process and gift of metamorphosis. Do not miss, dismiss or bypass this time. Enter fully into the grace that will carry us through and move us fully through to the #otherside - new, whole, refreshed, transformed and very different than what was before. Do the rigor of the butterfly work. Cocoon to butterfly.
“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” – Anne Lamott