For the past decade, I have been able to watch - up close and personal - the amazing process of monarch caterpillars transforming into butterflies. Spending hours poking around a milkweed patch has provided me time to reflect on how this process is repeated in our lives and communities.
I have often said that people are a part of, not apart from, nature. Its rhythms and processes are just as integral to our bodies and lives as they are to the lowly insect, if we but look. This has become more obvious to me during this past year of national politics and personal growth.
I'd be honored if you'd follow this first-timer into that milkweed patch for a little more pokin' around.
Photos original.
Monarchs, as all butterflies, go through 4 life stages - egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult. (For fun monarch facts, check out the wiki.) While I've not found eggs in my milkweed patch, it is easy to find caterpillars in a range of sizes doing what they do best - eating.
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While I love watching and photographing the caterpillars, it's actually the next phase that I find most interesting, and most relevant to my diary.
After a couple weeks of gorging themselves, they leave the milkweed patch to find a sheltered spot. They become very still. Then they secure their back "feet" with strands similar to a spider's thread, and let go - forming a classic "J" shape.
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After as long as 24 hours in this position, there begins an undulation just beneath the skin. The skin splits. They writhe and sway, splitting and collapsing the former skin until it forms a small ball and drops off.
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Skin is shed. Old ideas and old ways are cast aside.
The pupa continues to move, shrinking and hardening into the characteristic smooth chrysalis with which we are all familiar.
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And there it sits. For almost two weeks. Nothing really seems to be happening. But it is. The most amazing thing is happening.
Think about all the diaries we read on this very site over the last year where family members or friends who did not share our political views became quiet. Withdrew. Stopped talking politics with us. They were changing inside. But they were not ready to share that with us - with the rest of the world.
Think about the changes in direction we envision for this country. Changes within our government. Within our communities. They can't be imposed from the outside. This is why we want more and better Democrats, right?
For me, I have struggled with some intensely personal matters. I have withdrawn. Become quiet. I have been changing on the inside.
Maybe for me, or for our friends and family, these aren't biologically driven processes. But they're real.
As I have watched caterpillars go through this transformation, I've often thought it looks painful. It's probably not, really. But changes in long-held personal beliefs can be quite painful, which might be part of the reason so many of us feel the need to isolate ourselves as we go through them.
A day before the butterfly emerges, the chrysalis becomes transparent.
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We can see the dramatic beginnings of change with the recent election. I feel like we're looking at that transparent chrysalis. People we never thought would vote for a Democrat - or vote at all - did so for Obama. Communities everywhere are talking about transforming to a green economy.
I wonder if outsiders can yet see the changes in me...
After emerging, the wrinkly wings straighten and the last vestiges of the caterpillar are eliminated. Sometimes, when the wind blows, it helps to have another to hang on to...
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Ultimately, when the wings are dry and strong, the mature butterfly takes off to fulfill its destiny: beginning the cycle of life all over again.
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Not all caterpillars succeed in transitioning to the chrysalis stage. Not all chrysalises mature and produce a butterfly.
But enough do.
And back to my metaphor - even in the face of truth, not all minds are changed. Even with enormous energy and spirit, not all movements succeed.
But enough do.
And today, I have hope. Hope for new policies and politics to change the direction of this nation. Hope for a change of hearts in individuals to embrace respect and cooperation.
And, yeah, I have hope for me, too - to shed old fears and give more generously, love more completely, live more fully.