Intense and beautiful transformations

Transforming ourselves brings us closer to discovering our purpose

Butterfly in the Bardini Gardens (Florence, Italy) by Melinda Gallo

The moment I arrived at the top of Bardini Gardens, I was greeted by a butterfly that encircled me twice before joining a few other butterflies and bees buzzing around a lavender bush. As I watched the butterfly drink nectar from the center of the lavender blossoms, I thought about her life. It’s such an incredible transformation for one being to go through: from being born a caterpillar and to being reborn a butterfly.

We have all gone through transformations in our lives. Some we have chosen to embark upon and others we were nudged (if not forced) into. The journey of transformation is not only challenging and intense, but can also be quite scary and mysterious. Most of the time, we only see the benefit of a transformation after we have come out the other side and can look back without consequences.

Over these past three and a half years, I have gone through a rather major transformation. I thought my transformation would be simple because I thought it consisted of ending my career as a freelance technical writer to become a fiction and non-fiction writer. I quickly learned that the shift was much greater than I had imagined.

Not only did I go from being outwardly focused where I was concerned about other people’s opinions to being inwardly focused where I was concerned about my own opinion. I was no longer writing what was expected of me, but rather writing what was important and meaningful to me.

During my transformation, I secluded myself quite a bit, focused more on following my heart, and only did what felt beneficial to me and my heart. Spending time in solitude gave me the opportunity to not only heal my heart a little bit more, but also to learn what loving myself entails.

As humans, we believe that we have the choice to transform ourselves or not. In certain circumstances, maybe we do; however, I don’t believe we have a choice if the transformation is essential to our becoming who we truly are and discovering what our purpose is. Like the caterpillar, some transformations are not only necessary but vital.

We are both frightened and excited when we embark upon a transformation. Like the…