The year of the cocoon?

I read a nice story about how the Chinese came about naming their years after certain animals. It was an interesting story, and I enjoyed reading about the significance of each animal for the Chinese.

I believe in naming special events, people, phenomena. A name is a unique identity, it indicates something, and gives it significance for you.

For me, 2017 was the year of the cocoon. I didn’t begin the year with that name, but for me, it was a year when I literally wanted to crawl inside and just stay hidden.

Why?

Life.

Sometimes life gives you some seriously hard knocks that make you question every single thing about yourself. If the knocks are hard enough, then you question your core values, your beliefs, and your faith.

We all know the butterfly life cycle.  It's also one of my class' favourite stories (The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle). The Caterpillar eats so much food and then builds a cocoon around himself. If he had a human brain, I imagine that in his mind he would have a conversation like this:

"There must be a purpose for my existence. It can't be just eating and crawling all over the ground.

What am I here for? Why am I in a cocoon?"

Questions are very important if they help you find out why. If they show you a purpose or at least lead you on to something.

Everyone is born with a purpose which is why by default we all have dreams.

As we grow up, we learn to conform to the status quo, life beats us into being 'normal' and gradually we stop dreaming. We 'mature' and stop believing the possibility of the impossible.

Imagine the caterpillar on the ground admiring all those birds flying around him in circles before he ducks to hide so they don't eat him.

Then all of a sudden, instinct takes him into a cocoon.

Life does that for all of us; brings us into a period of incubation where we are forced to really think about purpose, to conceive dreams and ideas, to find our identity and most importantly to metamorphose - to change.

This change is tricky - it happens either for the better or for worse.

Difficult challenges in life can make you bitter, resentful, cynical, distrusting or they can make you humble, grounded, full of faith and gratitude.

When it is time, he breaks out of his cocoon and emerges a beautiful, colourful butterfly that can do what he only dreamed about before - FLY!

In conclusion, let your dreams be your north star. They will guide you to your true purpose. Challenges happen to everyone. Everyone is going through one process of change or the other so there's no need to go around acting like you're the only person who may be having it hard. It's simply life's way of getting you back to the basics of discovering your purpose, re-discovering your dreams and finding out your strength.

So while last year was the year of the cocoon, I am so pleased that this year is the year of the butterfly.

I have had the opportunity to question my core values and I am so grateful to have answered those questions.

I hope you do the same as you go through your process.

Happy NEW YEAR!