 When I was in recovery and healing from a chronic ailment, my mentor suggested I visit a butterfly garden everyday for a while. By luck, I happened to have one close to where I was staying. On my frequent visits, I began to notice the subtle signs of improvement within me…not only that it was a meditative experience and my observation skills got sharper, but more importantly it was calming to be surrounded by the colourful, beautiful beings and I began to immerse myself in the quiet as I spent more and more time there. Yes, it was just what I needed at many levels. I began to search for this caterpillar that had to be close by and for the first time in my life, I focused on the process, the transition a caterpillar makes before it becomes a butterfly. Have you ever experienced this? It’s a fascinating process! The caterpillar is always hungry…it seems to be eating and gorging on something constantly….it probably needs a lot of energy for the task ahead. It's a slow exercise and needs patience, it could take weeks or longer but what is very interesting is that it appears as though nothing is happening…the pupa is just hanging under a branch, hidden most times under leaves…barely any action on the outside but on the inside, there are BIG changes _ legs and wings are being formed and a great amount of energy is generated to give a lift to the magical creature that is to appear. Doesn’t the caterpillar story apply to us humans too? We exist, we eat, we sleep, and we go about doing and taking care of business as we know best. We can make a life of consumption and myopically stay only with what is in front of us, possessing, consuming day after day…without a larger view of the landscape around us But here’s the thing _ it is an inbuilt part of the DNA of the caterpillar to become a butterfly…that is its purpose on this planet! Yet, unlike the caterpillar we humans have a choice _ we can stay a pupa or we can push forth and become a butterfly. Those of us who stay caterpillars experience hunger, of course like all of us, but they stay with the life they know…the comfortable and the safe life. I’m not sure who said these lines …I heard them somewhere, “how does one become a butterfly?” She asked, “ You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” The choice confronts us all…should you continue as you are, with the known or should you choose to get uncomfortable in pursuit of the greater life? On one side there’s comfort and predictability and on the other side there’s magnificent beauty, and purpose and creation. The journey of transition may seem chaotic or strange to some but to the person going through it there is a knowing that this is how we grow…this is the growth zone. This is how it worked for me too…this is how the trials and challenges I went through, which were daunting at first…pulling me towards the comfortable and simultaneously a call to move ahead and beyond…something that asked of me, “why do you feel this call? Why this need to move?” BECAUSE something is needed of you, or you wouldn’t even want to do it! Then slowly came an insight, an understanding, a peep into wisdom, a step into self-knowledge and the gifts of empathy, love and other qualities became a personal experience. As a spiritual therapist, I see myself as the exterior of the chrysalis…holding space for my client to grow and gently calling them out to be who they were always meant to be. This is when my practice shifted to a much broader perspective…all the answers I was looking for, I found them in the metaphysical and spiritual understandings. And so also with the people I meet…all those who are attracted to the work _ all those who feel disconnected, lonely, depressed or those that are in denial and are living and working with little or no sense of inner calling or emotional intelligence…I help to remind them that it’s time for a broader vision, a shedding of the old and the re-birth to the higher, butterfly-like living…it’s time for some honest reflection, a deeper look to see that we’re all butterflies in the making! What do you feel? Do you think it’s time for you? Happy searching! Cheers! |
Ritu Malhotra |
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