Change Is Happening (Whether You Can See It Right Now or Not)

The gardener at my daughter’s school recently gave us a caterpillar smaller than the size of a pinky nail to bring home. It wasn’t looking so hot by the end of day one when we found it laying lifelessly in a thin layer of water at the bottom of its new habitat. 

But we set it up on a sturdy twig, named it “Resi” (short for resilient) and before we knew it, it was blowing our minds how it seemed to be growing The Very Hungry Caterpillar style before our very eyes. 

For a week, every time we peeked in it looked plumper. Vibrant green, yellow, white and black stripes emerged. We giggled watching its tiny mouth chomp feverishly away on fennel and oohed and ahhed as it slinked elegantly around its container.

We'd fallen in love with our little pet.

Then one morning we woke up and Resi was gone. 

Well, the caterpillar form of Resi was gone anyway, a bright green chrysalis having formed around him overnight.

And now it looks like nothing’s happening inside that chrysalis. It appears exactly the same on the outside from day to day. It seems to be static; stable; unchanging. 

But inside, a whole literal mess of transformation is underway despite the fact that we can't see it from the outside. 

So if you’re in a chrysalis phase of your life right now and parts of you are stirring with agitation, trying to bust out of that seemingly – and to the ego often maddeningly – dormant phase as quickly as possible, I wanted to offer this reminder:

Just because you can’t see the change yet doesn’t mean it’s not happening. 

And despite how desperately your (perfectly normal, human) ego wants to bulldoze through this slower, quieter, more internal phase of growth…

Some parts of you may have to dissolve into a goopy mess before you evolve into your next form.

So that whatever needs to be shed can be shed and whatever needs to be rearranged or integrated within you can be rearranged or integrated in preparation for your next phase of growth. 

But trust that once you allow yourself to surrender into the uncertainty and messiness, that that’s likely when the most beautiful new phase of your evolution will start to take form. 

Can you let the messy but vital in-between-forms phase work its invisible magic so your fresh wings can grow?

Here's to that beautiful next version of yourself gathering the strength to break through to a next level of freedom, authenticity and integration on the other side.

Lots of Love,

Melissa

PS - If you’re curious about exploring these themes in a sweetly personalized way, be in touch about 1:1 coaching possibilities.