Nature’s Love Story and the Gift of Metamorphosis. Essay for Women.
The inevitable transition which every girl experiences as she becomes a woman is a natural, yet mysterious, force of nature. Words fail to explain all that a girl feels when she is growing, blossoming, and changing.
The intensity spirals from the inside as she is immersed into the first signs of her womanhood. This inner awakening of selfhood brings new feelings and emotions along with heightened awareness, sensibilities and even anxious anticipation. All rising and surfacing as she herself does.
In nature the equivalent of this transition of form and internal evolution is metamorphosis.
This mighty biological phenomenon melts ice in the spring, shoots sprouts through cracks in the pavement, transforms seeds into flowers. This extraordinary force is the intelligent foundation of all aspects of Life.
The definition of metamorphosis is a process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages.
The visual we are most familiar with is the life cycle of a caterpillar: as it weaves itself into a silky cocoon, old tissues disintegrate, new ones develop, and thus it morphs into a butterfly.
For us the butterfly is a symbol for nature’s wonder, beauty, and magic, carrying the mystery and wondrous secret of Life on its wings.
We relate to the butterfly and look to nature in all its diverse expressions because in nature rests all universal truths such as what is true for a butterfly, is also true for people.
What’s true for a seed, is true for a tree. The sages say that in every seed is the promise of the forest, and every soul is a divine seed.
As a student and admirer of nature, I’ve observed that there is an inherent purpose and potential to be expressed within all forms of life — everything is planted and regenerated throughout the seasons with this living force of nature.
Nature has become my muse and as her student, I’ve grown to appreciate and revere all life and the forces of nature because I cannot deny its pulse and the inspired knowing that I am interconnected and part of it all.
This wonder and curiosity led me to explore the extent of my potential, and in learning about the higher Self…
I have come to understand its imbeddedness in the Soul and how the divine seed within me is to be planted with the highest intention so that it may fulfill nature’s divine expression of form. Furthermore, the forces of nature create the unfathomable and maintain such delicate balance — the miracle that is symbiotic life.
These forces are also fully invested in the evolution of all creations, the actualization, nurturing and guiding to expression and knowing of the Self as well as the Source. There is also a powerful protective quality of this force of creation, fulfilling each offspring from birth with its vital pulse. Life force.
The intentional gift from our great ancestors is still passed on to us through the age-old tradition of story telling. Folklore, myths and fairy tales keep the intention alive by telling the story of transformation — from the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Our ancestors ask us to tell Life stories.
I believe I’ve been called by my ancestors to tell Life stories to empower women, because our familiar ‘his-story’ favours the hero’s journey where women mostly play supporting roles… Therefore, we must be the heroines!
Why not choose our own authentic role models and true images for girls and women as we redefine and crystallize our own greatest vision of womanhood?
What if women weren’t obsessed with perfection and fitting in?
What if we weren’t ashamed of imperfections and wounds?
What if we could honour the scars just like our virtues as if they are precious jewels purposefully decorating the very fabric of our being?
What if we stopped bullying and criticizing ourselves?
What if we honoured Woman as a divine creation with a magnitude that the brain can’t even comprehend?
Because in a woman, nature plants the seed of fertility, and she is the one bearing and nursing life, carrying within that which is sacred to human life.
And why don’t we restore the harmony and grace of Mother Nature’s powers within us, so we can revere that which is sacred to us?
What if all we have to do now is return to our Mother and connect? What if the girls and women are to rise and rise?
I share this perspective as my experiences of being blindfolded by fears and paralyzed by the old wounds that kept me from….
stepping on my path of becoming my own heroine.
However, I knew all this led to the door I only needed to open. The way out is through the shadows and knowing the wounded self, as metamorphosis truly happens in the dark. Although we are sometimes terrified of our dark … it is our key transformer.
Metamorphosis is about letting go of attachments, detaching from the form, the past, and even the familiar.
It’s surrendering the self to uncertainty and releasing control and the old structure so transformation can begin. Mother Nature supports the new becoming all the way, as we submit ourselves to the great unfolding of nature’s forces.
Breath, soften, lean in and trust. This is when the force intervenes, the form transcends and shape shifts into a new possibility.
And this is how we rise!
This more loving and trusting relationship with Nature and myself (the emerging woman inside) has become the cornerstone of my selfhood.
This new victorious perspective emerged as I learned to trade in my fears and attachments to higher powers for transmutation.
Just like nature functions through the harmony of divine order, being in a harmonious state is foundational as is as the willingness to embody a greater vision for ourselves.
Nature is the muse and mistress of harmony, evolution, balance, and regeneration.
By choosing to heal my connection with Mother Nature, I saw how only I kept myself disempowered.
By resisting the natural forces and ultimately fearing change, I prolonged a cocoon situation and held myself back from the life force and growth that I needed to rise strong and anew.
I too felt isolated, helpless, and lost somewhere in between the awkward stages of becoming… I’ve outgrown the girl…but I was not yet a woman.
And this is when the Muse found me…
She breathed new life into me and inspired me, often through the presence of other women. She taught me to to perceive and live with an open heart so I can recognize and follow the living pulse of the Mother as I navigate my path. This I now know for sure:
An essential passage inward — to claim your true nature, your wholeness, goodness and inherent innocence is what she is calling you to discover.
If you feel like you’re going through “your metamorphosis” or something that feels like a transitional phase — know you are safe here...
Trust the timing of your life — you are now courageously and purposefully immersed in your becoming.
There is no greater purpose than fully knowing the Self, realizing your true potential and feeling the forces of nature work through you.
I also wrote a post about authentic entrepreneurship such as: “Create a business that mirrors the truest and highest expression of who you are”
