“There’s a part of every living thing that wants to become itself, the tadpole into the frog, the chrysalis into the butterfly, a damaged human being into a whole one.” - Ellen Bass
Friends,
We are in a season of change and transformation. Here on the waning edge of winter, with hints of spring in the air, we know bigger changes are afoot– more than the seasonal shift that happens as the earth makes its yearly trek around the sun. Our global community is in turmoil. Worldwide, we are experiencing seismic shifts in climate, culture, politics, and economics, shifts that shake the very ground beneath our feet.
Is this what transformation feels like? What the caterpillar feels as it transforms into a butterfly? Or the tadpole into a frog? Is this what the seed feels as it breaks open, becoming a sprout and then a seedling?
As I contemplate these everyday transformations, there are three recurring thoughts in my mind.
- Like the caterpillar can’t know what it will be like to be a butterfly, we don’t know what our world community will be like on the other side of this transformation. Just as every cell in the caterpillar’s body plays a part in the transformation, every cell, every person in the collective body of our global community has a part to play in our own transformation. How we are now – everything we think, say, and do will have a direct impact on the outcome. This is what it means to be part of an interconnected whole.
- Transformational change requires sacrifice, giving up something in service of a greater good. The caterpillar must give up its caterpillar ways to become a butterfly. We know that some of our human-ly ways have led us to this point of crisis, the habits of patriarchy, white supremacy, and consumer-driven capitalism. To become something different, better, and more whole will require that we give up these habits. Not an easy task when our lives and everyday needs are so bound up in late-stage capitalism. Yet, each small change makes a difference in the collective whole.
- Conscious transformation takes mindful awareness. It takes living with a different mind-set, envisioning the world not as it is but as it can be. It takes making conscious choices about how and where we spend our time and our money. It takes asking: “What can I give up in service of a greater good?” Time? Money? Comfort? Convenience? Privilege? It takes making conscious choices about how we show up in the world. Will it be in complacency or in power?
I don’t know how this will all turn out. I do know that if we are to achieve the world we dream of – and I believe we can – it will require sacrifice, which at root means, “to make sacred.” It will take each of us reclaiming our own sacredness, our own transformational processes, our own quest for wholeness. It will take mindful awareness that this is holy work. Embracing this season of changing and becoming more fully who we are – individually and collectively – is truly holy.
Yours in shared ministry,
Rev. Diane
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