What Can the Butterfly’s Metamorphosis Teach Us About Transformation?
The butterfly/caterpillar’s metamorphosis has always brought a sense of wonder to me: How can something so seemingly ordinary transform into something so beautiful?
I wonder if the caterpillar had any idea what it would become?
I wonder if there was any thought given to creating the chrysalis that nurtured the evolution?
I wonder….
When my daughter was little, I was her Sunday School teacher at church. The curriculum was called Godly Play, and we learned to ask the question: “I wonder.”
As an adult, I wished I had been taught to wonder when I was little.
The ability to wonder about things opens us up and expands us. It can help us be creative, and it can help us find answers.
I found myself in my 30s asking the question: “I wonder what caused the panic attack in my workplace?” I had never experienced a pain panic attack before.
Other questions were, “I wonder why I keep repeating the same unhealthy patterns?” “I wonder why I believe deep down that I am unworthy?” “I wonder why I feel I need to stay small and not have a voice?”
The answer beneath all of this is that I was a victim of childhood sexual abuse. Many of us have questions around what happened to us as children. Wounds of many kinds result from abuse that we have seen or experienced. If we don’t heal those wounds, we carry them deep within us, and they continue to take a toll.
I found myself in my mid-30s needing to heal that little girl who was hurt so many years ago.
I also wondered if I could break the generational cycle. I had married an abuser because I did not think I deserved better, and I had a daughter within this marriage. I wondered, “Can I keep my daughter from falling into the same trap?”
In some ways I was inching through life as a caterpillar, functioning just fine but not manifesting my full potential.
I needed to cocoon; I needed to form a chrysalis of self-reflection and healing to transform into who I was meant to be.
A decade later I have many of the answers to my wonders and seek to claim a fully lived life.
I have been able to give my internal little girl voice, and she feels a sense of purpose to encourage others to heal their woundedness.
I have been honest with my daughter about my journey, my mistakes, my mindsets, and my wounds. She is now 22 years old, and I know she will not stay small, nor will she accept being treated poorly. I know there are unique wounds to her, but I believe that I have broken the generational cycle around some of my traumas and shown her what courage looks like to do the healing work.
I believe we can claim our Going-Forward story and have new, life-giving chapters.
We have to be willing to wonder. We have to be willing to be curious, to look into the wounds, and begin to heal from them.
I hope you will join me for the May 15th blog where we will have prompts for wondering.
We hope you will engage with us in whatever way feels most helpful. There is a Thriver Tribe here to support you, root you on, and believe you can make life-changing steps to move to a thriving life.
Here’s to Thriving!
Tambry
Talk To Tambry
I am glad you have taken the time to engage with this blog. Sometimes it is helpful to process new insights that emerge. If you would appreciate brief time with a someone who understands, our Talk to Tambry offering is for you. For 30 minutes, you can receive support from Tambry who is a certified life coach, spiritual director and a survivor who has been on the journey as well. This is offered at a reduced rate of $50.
