“When There Is More To Come”

During long months spent in quarantine in our home, I often felt contained within a cocoon. This unexpected gift of time offered a chance to retreat inward. It brought my over-scheduled self to an abrupt halt, opening the channel for neglected areas of my life to absorb energy previously spent outwardly. This unprecedented year brought emotions of grief, fear, vulnerability, and an ungrounded future, as well as love, compassion, courage, and hope. Nature brought respite and inspiration, soothing with its myriad of colors, scents, and sights that cycled along with seasons that somehow transitioned, one into the other, unaffected by the raging COVID virus that spread beyond all borders and took the lives of so many.

From the shelter of an iridescent cicada wing chrysalis that elicited the stained-glass windows of my childhood, I could observe both outer and inner landscapes, engaging in ongoing contemplation of how to bring healing energy to the world and to myself. Being separated from friends, family, and strangers in public served to bring profound awareness and appreciation to our human need for connection. After more than a year spent inside this cocoon, I traveled through my own personal metamorphosis and felt immense relief when the cocoon began to gently release me from her hold. Like an emerging butterfly, I was ready to spread my wings and rejoin others in fields of flowers, trusting that healing and goodness would come as we re-entered a changed world as our transformed selves.