The Butterfly Effect

You may have heard of or even read the children's story, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", by Eric Carle. You know the one where the caterpillar starts out small and then goes on an eating spree day by day eating himself silly, eventually builds a cocoon around himself and hibernates and then emerges as a beautiful butterfly?

This story is one of  my daughter's favourite at the moment, so I could recite it to you word for word from the numerous times we have read it together. It did however, get me thinking that there was a lot more to the story than the tale of evolution from a caterpillar to a butterflly. The more thought I give it, the more it resonates with me in my adult life.

It's the story of how change is possible, change is inevitable and that change is something that can be a beautiful thing. It teaches one to be hungry for growth and change, to be adaptable in the face of adversity, that good things do in fact take time; that we should be patient, the wait is worth it and when the time is right, your wings will appear and you will be able to fly. Speaking of flying, that reminds me of a joke I once heard. "Why do angels fly?" "Because they take themselves lightly".

I guess the overall point I am trying to make is that change can be a very wonderful and beautiful thing. Something to be embraced upon, a realisation that change is a journey and not a destination. For some reason, we have become afraid of change, we fear it and run away from it, thinking it's okay I just want to stay the same. I am safe where I am. What I have is good enough.I couldn't possibly change. If I change  I will lose my friends blah blah blah. Insert whatever story you like here (  ______ ).  Or perhaps that's just me coming from my exerpience again?

The bare naked truth is that without change there is no growth, without growth there is no life and if there is no life, there is death. Death of a dream, death of a personality, death of possibility, death of potential. Nature teaches us that change is a beautiful thing. This is seen through not only our beautiful butterfly friends, but the changing of the seasons and I am certain there are many other examples we could identify if we took a moment to reflect. A mentor of mine, Joe Pane says "You're either green and growing or you're ripe and rotting".

Change can happen in an instant, if we choose to let it. There is no law written that we have to stay the same, keep the same beliefes, lead the same life. If you want a different outcome to the one that you are currently experiencing, I can guarantee that change will be the one certainty of you moving closer to your desired outcome.

My challenge to  you this week is to reflect on your current situation and identify what small changes you could make to start taking you down a different path, a path that would bring you closer to having what you want to have, to living life the way you want to be experiencing it.  Because, just like our butterfly friends, beautiful and wonderful things can emerge just when we think our lives are over .......