Time of metamorphosis
Synchronicities are occurrences that happen together in a seemingly meaningful way but otherwise would have no type of relation to one another. In other words, a synchronicity is when things happen together (coincidences), such as when you hear about a book from multiple people around the same time, or you hear about a concept multiple times in one week. Carl Jung believed these coincidences were meaningful, there to guide us in some way.
This week I experienced such a coincidence. I listened to an interview about metamorphosis during this time. The speaker explained that all metamorphoses include some type of struggle, and all include some type of incubation period. Take a butterfly for example. A caterpillar creates a cocoon, stays in the cocoon while the metamorphosis occurs, and then struggles to break out of the cocoon before emerging as a butterfly. The effort and struggle of breaking out of the cocoon is critical to the survival of the butterfly. The struggle prepares the butterfly’s body to be strong enough to spread its wings and fly. Without the struggle to beak out of the cocoon, the butterfly would not be physically prepared for survival and would die. The speaker explained that this is a time of metamorphosis. The pandemic is the struggle. The shelter-in-place is the cocoon. We are all facing difficulty and struggle, right now cocooned in our homes, preparing for a metamorphosis. If this is hard, that’s normal, necessary even. Resistance makes us stronger.
Later that day, I got home from work. My husband explained he listened to a completely separate interview in which the speaker explained this was a time of metamorphosis. Then, we took a walk around our neighborhood with the dog. We walked up a street we don’t normally walk up and a man outside pointed across the street to direct our attention to a fence filled with tiny cocoons, holding what will become monarch butterflies. Now that’s a synchronicity! I take it as a sign that this is a time of change, and growth and evolution. One in which we will all be changed in some way. This is an opportunity for us to develop into something a little more beautiful, someone a little wiser, more mindful, more gracious, and more grateful. We can expect some struggle, knowing that the difficulty is necessary to prepare us for the next step, for the new version of ourselves, or better version of society. I’m going to try to enjoy the cocoon while I’m in it.