'For the interim time
what is being transfigured here is your mind,
and it's difficult and slow to become new.
The more faithfully you can endure here,
the more refined your heart will become
for your arrival in the new dawn'
- John O'Donohue
Sophie Strand writes: If we think of a dragonfly's metamorphosis. This is not like the simple caterpillar from cocoon to butterfly. No. The dragonfly's transformation is slow. A prolarva bursts from its egg, searches for water, then hatches and moths. But this is just the beginning. The larva will hatch and molt another five to fourteen times something spending up to 5 years in the process of becoming. Finally after having shed not one version of itself but many, the larva crawls into shallower water, poking its head up and slowly tasting air. It breathes for the first time under cover of darkness. When it has literally caught its breath, it drags its wet body onto land, climbing up a flower stalk or hardy blade of grass where it can rest. When it has secured itself, it totally redistributes the liquid of its body, beginning to push out of itself. Once out of the 'exuviae' of shed skin, the slimy, shiny dragonfly waits for its legs to harden and its wings to dry. The emergence process takes up to three hours, usually timed for early morning.'
What we need as individuals as we clamber our way through this overly intellectualised world back into our hearts is to request tenderly around us:
'Please hold me during this time. My transition, my awakening is precious and sacred. Please move me slowly and lovingly into newness and allow me to stretch my wings and feel into new spaces within me without judgment or fear.'
