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It's About Time
Ruth Wong
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Butterfly has growing lessons for us
I love this time of year when I see more and more butterflies fluttering by. I've been fascinated by them ever since I visited a butterfly aviary several years ago. I was amazed to learn that most butterflies live only one or two weeks. It was a reminder of how fleeting life can be.
Upon returning to Hawaii, a client showed me her "butterfly bush," a huge crown flower bush abuzz with butterflies. She offered me some cuttings, which I eagerly accepted and put into a bucket of water to root.
Unknown to me, some of the leaves had minuscule eggs, which hatched into tiny caterpillars that ravenously devoured the flowers and leaves.
I watched the caterpillars become fat and juicy-looking, climb a branch, attach and hang upside down, shed their skins and become shiny green pods, or chrysalides.
Days later, a monarch butterfly emerged!
I never tired of watching this fascinating process. What a metamorphosis, from a lowly crawling caterpillar to a butterfly that is beautiful and free -- free to fly, free from its previous life and baggage.
I likened the stages to people: for clutterholics, the caterpillar stage represents ravenous buying, collecting, accumulation of possessions.
When your home is fat (filled to the brim), you might be ready for the metamorphosis to begin. Enter the chrysalis stage -- pull back, stop consuming and begin clearing the clutter, making decisions, purging and letting go of your excesses.
Then comes the emergence of the butterfly -- your home and self, beautiful and free! My butterflies took about nine days to emerge from the chrysalis stage.
Your time could take nine days, nine weeks or nine months. Hopefully not nine years!
The stages can also be likened to people who desire a life change in habits, with the caterpillar stage representing years of practicing the undesirable habit; the chrysalis stage being the time of transformation, or the conscious effort required to develop new habits; the result being the emergence of the butterfly -- you living free and unhindered.
If there are areas in your life or home that need transformation, I encourage you to identify what stage of metamorphosis you are in -- whether the caterpillar stage, still burdened by possessions or bad habits?
Or the chrysalis, transformation stage?
Then persist toward your goal so that you can emerge as a butterfly, flying and living freely and beautifully.
I hope to see you fluttering by!
See you in three weeks!
Ruth Wong owns Organization Plus. Contact her care of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813, call 488-0288 or e-mail
orgplushawaii@hawaiiantel.net.