Feelosophy 2: ‘Happiness is a Butterfly’

Watercolour painting of a butterfly.

Change is inevitable. Time is constant. But transformation is a choice…

I’ve named this year Metamorphosis. You may have a word of your own that speaks to your growth. For me the word metamorphosis is the dance between loss and new beginnings. It is shedding old identities and stepping into new skin.

THE CATERPILLAR

We all begin as ‘caterpillars’. Hungry to learn but naive in our ways. Not realising this pain…will be useful someday. As Mark Nepo once said, “The flower doesn't dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes”. We let nature take its course. Phase after phase. Brushstroke after brushstroke. Like the caveman, we evolve through thought. While his fight was to survive, ours is to create. To choose now or later. Regardless, every experience is treated as a ride or die. 

THE COCOON

 At some point we will experience a new start or hit a rock bottom. Have you stood at the edge of a cliff and asked: who am I becoming?

We feel discomfort and spindle ourselves into cocoons. We feel raw and unseasoned to meet the light. Like hopeless romantics, we grow in the darkness without intention. There are no stars or moons to guide us.

Just silence.  Trapped in cocoons. Unseen. Unheard. But even in silence…

Hope becomes light. Light becomes motion. In this solitude, we find a way to know ourselves and ignite a light within us until we are eventually drawn to the lighthouse we had been seeking all along. 

THE BUTTERFLY

The cocoon hatches in a series of portraits. Your portrait becomes evolution. Your body, a revolution. The caterpillar has become the butterfly.  Change paints itself in colour. Possibility has become possibilities. And finally you take a step back from the painting. Clear as winter snow. Pure and innocent of the experiences we once treated as crimes. And let me tell you, butterflies are hard to catch. The brush is in your hands. You stretch your wings, not for the applause, not for the flight, but because its time.

You’re not who you were. You never were. As the world sees a butterfly, only you remember the dark.

This is Metamorphosis, a word of honour, spoken with grace - like the butterflies we chase.

Why are butterflies the symbol of change? 

Because life is cyclic. Winters will pass. Emotions will fade. All to the changing beat of a dance.

“happiness is a butterfly, we should catch it while dancing...” -Lana Del Rey

Not everyday is high. Not everyday is a low.  The portrait is not complete yet, it is still unfolding. Just like this blog. Just like you.