Cocooning
/"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”
~ Buckminster Fuller
For the past many months, I have been cocooning myself, tucked in, physically distancing, reviewing and rerooting my life. During this fertile time of contemplation, of creatively sourcing myself through painting, writing, meditation, and movement, I’ve become more aware than ever of the convergence between the personal and universal. The profound interconnection between each of our individual and global dances. Here on “Island Earth”, during this international pandemic, it seems especially relevant to understand and honor this connection. This time is a potent invitation for reflection, conversation, and transformation. We are invited to show up, pay attention, shift, and grow. I envision growing my roots deep and spreading my wings wide for the days ahead. Please join me! Below I would like to share with you my poem about this vision.
Sacred Cocooning and Transformation
These past many months of collective global cocooning,
each of us marooning inside our homes, never entirely alone,
managing to stay connected online or by phone,
sharing our creative expressions, distilling our unique impressions,
residing in a rarefied solitude, or perhaps with good company,
abiding in dynamic stillness while never utterly inert,
staying alert, and attentive, to this moment of potent transformation.
During this sacred planetary pause,
we are adapting to a rare quietude, an unfamiliar homeostasis,
listening to the whispers inside our own solitary chrysalis,
slowing down, or in some cases, coming to a halt, full stop,
observing in this stillness, how our breath still breathes itself,
our heart still beats inside our chest,
and our cells continue to renew and replenish.
In the meantime, our work, school, leisure, and family time have all shape-shifted,
spinning and tilting, spilling and blending, into wholly new rhythms and tempos,
Life is choreographing itself into a reimagined modern dance,
where we are asked to awaken from our collective trance,
and imagine a humane and inclusive planetary ecology,
where personal sovereignty and meaningful connections are cherished,
a global paradigm that cultivates respect, social justice, and equality.
As we tentatively begin to re-emerge and step out,
let’s ask ourselves how to show up and shed what no longer serves us,
to question and release the old, stale, oppressive ways that have harmed us,
fiercely willing to liquify, to heal from the inside out,
summoning our trustworthy intuition to fertilize inspiration,
creatively gestating, nesting, quickening to blossom and be born,
and in this mysterious, resplendent way, collectively midwife the imaginal into being.
