Not everyone is as avid a cartoon fan as I am, so maybe I should provide some background on that title. I watch a show called American Dad and there’s an episode where the main protagonist usually sticks his family into vats filled with goo and VR attachments, rather than spend holidays with them. It’s horrible from an actual family perspective but hilarious from a cartoon one. But the actual goo I’m referring to in today’s post, refers to change. Not change in environment or job or even goals but change within oneself, which tends to be the most difficult change of all.
I found the image above somewhere online, last week. I can’t quite remember where but it doesn’t matter. It resonated deeply enough for me to save it at the time, so I thought I would share it. The statement, in and of itself, makes a lot of sense. People always tend to assume that once a caterpillar seals itself up in the cocoon, it comes out having “grown” into a butterfly. The process is actually incredibly complicated and does, in fact, require the majority of the caterpillar’s body breaking down into its constituent proteins.
Despite popular belief, it isn’t completely “goo,” there are a number of organs that stay intact. And it would have to, right? Many people go through this kind of a transformation. It’s never easy and the outside world will usually do very little to accommodate one’s transformation. But if you manage to fight your way and suffer through being reduce to your constituent parts, you’re almost guaranteed to come out more beautiful than when you started. And if you feel that you may not be, it doesn’t mean you aren’t; it may simply mean that your transformation isn’t done yet.
As the image says, if you’re a mess wrapped up in blankets, don’t just keep going. Take a moment to let yourself heal. Take a breath. Take two. Allow yourself to see the path you want to pursue before shedding your cocoon and coming out changed. And be sure to change only in the way that you choose to. Food for thought… ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 