Metamorphosis

We live in a world full of rules. Most of them are unspoken, unnoticed. Women always shave their legs.  The economy always grows. Children must be in school in order to learn. Dying is to be avoided at all costs. White people are first. Getting things right must come before connecting with people. It’s not proper to think of pets as having as much value as humans. The list is endless.

We are all expected to keep order, to follow expectations. We’ve learned to feel very uncomfortable if we don’t. We just assume it’s imperative that we “fit in”. So we go about our lives doing our best to make everything okay.

And then suddenly, despite our attempt at being orderly, something forces a change in our lives. And we never seem to be ready for it. Even when change upon change happens, we continue to be surprised. We grit our teeth, figure we’ll endure it, get through it somehow.

In this we can learn from children, the very young ones who have not yet been impacted by the world of rules. They build and break, build and break. They live in the moment, with no need to preserve their creation, to make it permanent.

A few years ago I witnessed this and in that very moment wrote a poem:

Towers at Two

Higher, higher, higher
Reach up, build the tower
Tumble it down
Make it again

Higher, higher, higher
Smiles grow bigger
Tumble it down
Big wide mouth smiles

Higher, higher, higher
Working together
Tumble it down
Make it, make it.

Granted, if we tumbled down all our buildings we would have no shelter. So of necessity we learn about permanence. But most of us have lost the ability to flow with things, to enjoy the very moment of putting one block on top of another.

I’m reminded of the Tibetan monks who painstakingly made a mandala with coloured sand, only to wipe it away when they were done. If you’re not expecting it, the act of wiping it away can seem quite shocking! Perhaps it’s a worthwhile thing to practice, intentionally changing something, intentionally breaking a rule that wasn’t really that important after all.

We live in a time that makes us all stop and wonder at it. The rich get richer while the number of poor people increases. More and more throughout the world, the people in power show no care for the earth or its creatures and instead cause harm. No matter how much we as individuals want to make things better for the planet, the situation keeps getting worse. There is so much that makes no sense to us.

We’ve tried. In so many ways, we’ve tried to make everything right. Surely if we just want the best and work for the best, won’t it all work out? We’ve followed the rules and we’ve tried so hard.

Metamorphosis

Get ready for the change

A caterpillar does not know
It will become a fluttering butterfly

Yet it trusts the process
Spins its cocoon
Leaves the world it knows
To awaken with a new consciousness

Does the soaring butterfly remember
It once crawled along a leaf
Munching its way
In slow, small steps?

Perhaps not
It trusts the process
That brought it into the skies
On thin-scaled wings
That leave the heavier
Duller
Self-conscious humans
Gazing in admiration

The caterpillar
Crawling along the plant
Did not envy the soaring butterfly

It is the speaking
Thinking
Creating
Humans
Who long to soar with the butterfly
Yet fear their own transformation
Hide from death
Grit their teeth
Against change

Be still and know
Human intelligence
Does not exempt you
Be willing to change
Trust the process
That lies within
Metamorphosis