It is one of nature’s most amazing magic acts. The caterpillar goes behind the curtain and “Abracadabra!,” steps out to the audience, slowly unfurling her new beauty. What just happened wasn’t a simple wardrobe change. This was a transformation.

“How did she do that?” is always the question magic brings.

Think about it. What once was a multi-legged, creeping, plant destroying, poop machine emerges as a multi-colored, nectar drinking, flying, plant propagating machine. How is that even possible?  Something extreme had to happen. I had a sense that the process wasn’t pretty. Pretty amazing, but not pretty.

Simply put, once the caterpillar has cloaked itself in that magic chamber, it literally self-digests. It is a process called autolysis. Undercover of darkness, different cells release the enzymes necessary to dissolve themselves into a liquid.

Not everything is digested. Some basic life elements, such as organs, remain intact. There are also imaginal discs that don’t dissolve. These are the foundation for the butterfly’s development. We will talk more about these discs in a future post. In essence, what fills the chrysalis after self-digestion is a chunky soup. A bit unsettling isn’t it. Even nauseating.

Self-digestion is inescapable for the caterpillar. This metamorphic soup is part of the transforming journey, designed into the process. To experience a higher level of freedom, capacity to explore, and to receive a role of life-cultivator, the lowly caterpillar must go through melt-down. 

We have those moments and seasons in our lives, don’t we?Meltdown happens. That experience is usually uncomfortable, if not downright painful at some level. So, we seek to escape it or do what we can to get through the self-dissolving as quickly as possible. Living in a metamorphic soup is not what we seek out.

Avoiding or speeding up self-dissolving is like cutting open the chrysalis before the butterfly has formed. Metamorphosis is ended. The emergence of beauty has been thwarted.

What if you begin to see self-digestion as a time of revelation and transformation? My invitation is not to a depressed, self-destructive life. I am asking that you no longer fight off or fight through the hard, the difficult, or the painful realities of life. These are the times when some of the most amazing growth and transformation can happen. A powerful perspective shift happens if these difficult issues, relationships, or circumstances are no longer seen as the enemy, but as your chrysalis. The self-digesting that takes place will be profitable for you and the world around you.

For now, will you sit in that metamorphic soup? I am asking you to be completely here in those moments, as a way of focusing. If you are open to it, I also invite you to pray this portion of what I call The Prayer of Availability:

          “God, all that I am and have, I give to you.

          All that You are and have for me, I receive from you.”

In this time of vulnerable self-digestion, I am asking you to be simply available to abundant possibilities. I will unpack more in the days and weeks to come, but for now, stay behind the magic curtain for a while. Amazing things happen there.

Read Part 1