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The Butterfly Principle

March 14, 2019 2 Comments

What do you think of when you think of a butterfly? Renewal, growth? Are you where you want to be as a human? Has your spiritual growth been stunted, paused or has stopped all together? Failure is an outcome that most of us dread but it has actually become a "hot" topic. In thinking about this I was inspired by our Beautiful Butterfly lesson.

This guidance resonated with me because the butterfly has one of the most fascinating life cycles of all creatures. When I thought about the distinct stages of butterfly development, I began to recognize how they resembled the stages of my own life and my spiritual growth. Let's look more closely at 3 of these stages and see what we can learn when we study the butterfly:

The Caterpillar Stage

This stage is the most exciting for me because I LOVE to learn and experiment! In this stage of the butterfly's life, it's sole purpose is simply to eat as much as possible in order to fuel growth. This represents the learning stage where I am consuming as much knowledge and training as I can about something new I want to understand and master. As part of this process, I usually read, search for YouTube videos, listen to webinars and take in as much information as I can.

The Chrysalis Stage (Cocoon)

This is the most intriguing stage of butterfly development. Though it appears unchanged from the outside during this stage, there is dramatic transformation taking place inside: the caterpillar becomes a butterfly.

For me, this is when I rest. Rest and recovery is sometimes overlooked or mistaken for laziness or not trying hard enough. It's hard for us to understand the NEED to rest and gather our thoughts. As we rest, we reflect and avoid rash or hurried decisions. I know for me that after I rest, I feel refresh with a renewed sense of inspiration! In my "more mature" stage of my life, I have found that I don't have to work on someone else's idea of where I should or shouldn't be at this or that stage of my life. Everyone's needs are different.

The Butterfly Stage

At last in this final stage, the fully developed butterfly is ready to emerge from the cocoon. After breaking free, the butterfly's wings are still folded and wet and more rest time is necessary to allow blood to flow into the wings. Finally when the unfurled wings are fully dry, the butterfly is ready to take flight and share its beauty with the world.

During this stage there is an intentional "breaking free" that has to occur with proper timing before "flight" is undertaken. When I have gone through the other stages and am finally ready to display my new growth to the world, I have to leave behind the old way of doing things and move forward with courage and some risk-taking, while recognizing the fragility of my new "wings."

We need to recognize that it's okay to be a Caterpillar or to be resting in a Chrysalis state. We must stop judging our own progress and valuing ONLY the fully-formed Butterfly. When we embrace and engage completely in our current stage of development, we will grow more, give up less often and find more satisfaction in the entire process.

We have a great Faith Art Journaling prompt with our Beautiful Butterfly lesson at https://faithartjournaling.net/products/beautiful-butterfly

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