born again

as a young person, attending church, i remember singing a song: "bullfrogs and butterflies, they've both been born again". i like these images a lot. two creatures -tadpoles and caterpillars -begin with such different shapes and capabilities than the their future being.

a local woman in our town, who is a nature lover, gave my wife and i a monarch caterpillar to care for recently. we made sure to clean its little home and feed it milkweed often. it grew larger and larger, and one day it climbed up the side of the jar and wove itself into a chrysalis- a shiny green cocoon.

We have been waiting a week or so to see it emerge, and lo and behold as i walked into the kitchen this morning this is what i saw. a new being - a gorgeous monarch, trembling in its first moments of new life. i could barely breathe, it was so enrapturing.

so i am thinking about new life. yet, i feel perplexed, because sometimes i really feel like i am dreaming as i go about my day. i think that this concept is best understood by the symbolic imagery of christ's journey from the womb of mary to the womb of the tomb, and once the resurrection took place his walk continued with his friends whom he reunited with. i think that one of the most critical decisions i have in my life is to let go and be birthed by the present moment. whatever the situation is, whether trouble or pleasure, there is a cocoon to be found in. this warm, safe place is the place to dig in and die. but it means painfully letting go of what i have known. yet, to know myself in a deeper way, how else can it be done but to die. and when i emerge from the tomb, i will be a monarch, flying high.

to a day fully alive,

jamie