“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.”
~Proverb

I think this is similar to the thought that the night is always darkest before the dawn, and while I’m not sure if this thought is completely accurate, it often gives us hope.

When I think of a caterpillar, and what it might be thinking or feeling, I find it enticing. It could be that the caterpillar does think the world – its world – is ending. Does it realize that it’s going through metamorphosis? Does it know that it will spend time in its chrysalis and emerge as if a completely new (and more beautiful) creature?

What if it doesn’t realize? What if it doesn’t know? What might that suggest to us? That when we think all is lost, when we’re at the end of our rope or our hope, we might be curled up in our own metaphorical pupa stage, about to emerge as something new.

How can we take hope from this? How can we remember that we may be evolving? We may be forming? How can we keep ourselves open to new possibilities?

Simply by remembering, and allowing our own pupa stage. By being willing to take rest, to learn and grow, to change, and to have patience when it feels like our world is ending. To remember that there might be a new beginning waiting for us.

It can, at times, feel like the world is ending, but often the end of our current world – or patterns of habit – are necessary for a new world to begin. It just takes staying power, and a willingness to fly like a butterfly.

How have you emerged when you thought things were at their worst?
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