Last year, a friend invited me to see her monarchs. She grows milkweed (caterpillar food) and they gorge themselves on the plant. When the time is right the caterpillars begin to go through big transformation. They hook themselves onto a leaf, hang upside down and then spin a cocoon around their bodies. These cocoons hold the space for transformation. Over a period of days, the caterpillar, while safely enclosed, will become totally liquid before it is restructured into a beautiful monarch butterfly.  Going through a period of spiritual growth feels somewhat like this move from solid to liquid and then back again.

I wonder if the caterpillar feels any fear or hesitation? Does it worry or anticipate the change with excitement? Or does it lament leaving behind its worm life to become a new creature – and yet the same essence. The old part of it doesn’t entirely die, but it can never go back to that milkweed-eating caterpillar life.

As we move into this age of spiritual evolution, we too have opportunities to grow and transform in dramatic ways. We can create lives and a world that will reflect the beauty of our spirits – if we dare to open the heart and live from the deep place of the soul.

As someone who has faced many changes, I anticipate many more to come. But each time there’s a hesitation, a small fear, a holding on that brings a little bit of self-inflicted suffering. But each time I cross the bridge into the new life that’s waiting, it holds something better, greater expansion, more understanding and more love. It may be hard to leave some things behind, but the new place, the new form of life that appears has always been better, more vibrant, more deeply passionate, more joy-filled than before. If you’re in a chrysalis stage or about to move into one, I encourage you to embrace the stages of becoming as much as you love the being there. Every phase is a step that leads closer to wholeness, harmony and beauty.

Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind/body/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld