When a caterpillar goes into a cocoon, it goes through radical transformation and emerges as a beautiful butterfly. It does not come out as a bigger caterpillar, even having enjoyed the chocolate cake and the cherry pie.
When going through transformation we need to be ready to embrace that end state, as well as recognising the challenges it presents. No more meandering along the leaf. No curling up in a little ball, safely concealed from the rest of the world. Suddenly we have wings, and need to learn to fly. But a butterfly that still thinks it is a caterpillar, local and sheltered, will not survive, and all the pain of transformation (did you know a caterpillar digests itself! Imagine an organisation doing that…) will not be worthwhile.
It can be hard, safely on the ground, to think about floating in the sky. But once you have confidence to lift off, lightweight and free, your whole idea of what a horizon is and what your limits are fundamentally change.
(prompted by, I think, the 534th reading last night of the Eric Carle masterpiece)
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