Going to Goo

What the caterpillar

calls the end of the world,

the master calls a butterfly.

The nearsighted caterpillar views

the world from a quarter inch off the ground,

beyond that it’s just a blurry mirage.

When the caterpillar cocoons and goes to goo,

it’s world does come to an end.

It chooses the end of that life story.

In a state of goo,

without the desperate clinging

to social contracts designed to

preserve the status quo,

transformation can happen.

But we must first enter the

cocoon of our inner world,

to allow the deeper truth of our

winged larger selves to emerge.

When you hold a caterpillar

on your hand, you feel the undulatig labor

of it’s whole body with each step forward.

It’s impossible to hold a butterfly

without destroying it.

You must allow it freedom

and simply offer gratitude if it alights.

So many of our social contracts

like the caterpillar

are laboriously maintaining

the only world we’ve known

clinging to survival.

Each of our inner butterfly selves,

are craving the freedom to

transform into our creative passionate selves.

Free to just be.

Lizette Estelle Stiehr

November 24, 2011