Everything that lives goes through change throughout its life. Some of those changes are huge and some are very gradual. Some are completely life changing, and some just continue to enhance or enable life. Some nearly kill the thing that’s changing, and others are smooth and relatively painless. If we look at a caterpillar which, after a certain amount of time, forms a chrysalis around itself and then changes into a moth or a butterfly. I don’t think we really know whether it’s painful or not during the change itself, however when the butterfly or moth emerges from the chrysalis it can be quite stressful, hard work, and very tiring. Eventually the moth/butterfly emerges fully, spreads its wings to dry, and shows off its beautiful new colours. So, this change has been completely life changing – moving from one insect (a caterpillar that crawls along the ground and plants eating leaves) to a butterfly that can fly and drink the nectar from flowers.

I also read a story recently about the eagle and about the choice it makes about changing – either completely change and re-grow it’s beak, talons, and feathers, or not change and live for only a few more months. The change process is quite painful and lasts around 5 months with the result that the eagle can live for a further 30 years! Quite an amazing story.

So the Eagle changes parts of its body and the caterpillar completely transforms itself into a butterfly or moth. A cygnet eventually lets go of its baby feathers of brown and becomes a beautiful white swan. Just three ways demonstrating how life can change: one completely, one through choice, and one gradual through growth.

The thing with us humans is that we can do all of those if we want! But the key for us is choice. Do we choose to change, grow, and evolve or do we choose to stay where we are? The Ego Self will tell us that change isn’t necessary or that it’s painful and uncomfortable and so many of us fear change. We like things to be just the way they were. We like comfort zones. Imagine how fantastic life would be though if our comfort zones were constantly being gently stretched - in ways that are exciting, fun, and enjoyable. Life is evolving and moving on whether we like it or not and we can choose whether or not to gently stretch our comfort zone and change, or to stay where we are and fall further and further behind. If we leave changes for too long, then it can be a painful process like it is for the eagle. Having said that, we can also go into hibernation and come out a different person (like the caterpillar and the butterfly). Or, we can go through continual growth and change like the cygnet into the swan.

Here’s the thing though. With the Universe, life never stops changing, moving, evolving, creating, and expanding. And so it is with life. We can’t just change from egg to chicken (as it were) and then stop there. Embracing the understanding that transformation and change is constant – it’s the only constant there really is! It’s up to us whether we allow that change to be painful, and at the last minute, or whether we choose continually to review and reflect upon where we are NOW, in order to change and evolve along with the Universe.

At the end of the day, change will happen whether we like it or not. We can choose to be pulled along kicking and screaming and getting lots of bruises and slaps in the process, or we can move along with the change and enjoy the ride. Is there change you are resisting at the moment? Are you fighting it just because you don’t like change or because you weren’t the one to initiate it? Are there areas of your life you’re avoiding changing because it might cause a lot of upheaval? Remember, it’s better to start making small changes now while you know things need to change, rather than wait until you have no choice whatsoever and when the change will be huge and incredibly painful to deal with. Better suffer a grazed knee now than a broken leg later.

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us a universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest ... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Albert Einstein