Change and transformation are a necessary part of life. Until we are willing to enter into the process with our whole heart, we cannot really let go of the past. The new emerges out of the old.
Truly, our pain and suffering, our heartache and our anguish, do mold and shape us in wonderful ways if we but allow them to expand our thinking and our horizons. It is through these teachers that we become more. It is through these changes that we build upon the past and emerge with deeper insight, greater vision, and even a clearer sense of identity.
In some ways, I think the caterpillar is wiser than we. It knows when the time has come to build its cocoon, to enter into the process of change. We are not such willing creatures, by and large. Perhaps it is because the change was thrust upon us so suddenly. Yet, if we were to prepare ourselves, if we were to admit that someday this time will present itself to us, perhaps we would not fight the process so much. Perhaps the very act of accepting things for what they are would allow us to enter into times of change in a more graceful way.
By accepting what has occurred and allowing it to teach us what it will, we can indeed emerge victorious on the other side. Then we, too, will be like the butterfly, for our horizons will have expanded, and our depth of being will have grown immeasurably as we learn to take what life brings and call it friend.