How Can We Trust What Is Going On in the World?

When I watch the evening news my heart aches, but it doesn’t break because I trust what is going on.  I don’t like it and I wish it wasn’t happening, but I trust it.  How can that be?

Life has been unfolding for billions of years, and we have enough data now to understand that our Earth is a living process and she has gone through many stages on her journey from gas and dust to this beautiful, creative planet we are a living part of. And at every major shift in this unfolding, there was a crisis as the old way was dying and the new was being born.

I feel this is what is happening now on our planet.  The old way comes from the kind of mind that is about good/bad, right/wrong, and it can’t put itself into other people’s shoes. This has created so much suffering on our planet.  The new mind that is being born understands we are all in this together and it is willing to communicate, listen, compromise and hold the vision for the healing of our planet.

This new kind of mind has been around for thousands of years, but only recognized and lived by a few people.  Some of the ones we know of are Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Gandhi and Rumi. But the time has now come for more and more of us to make a shift in perception and to live this new kind of mind.

One of the best analogies for what we are talking about here is the butterfly story told by evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris.  She says that, relative to its size, the caterpillar is one of the most destructive beings on this planet. It can devour a whole tree branch in record time.  Eventually it weaves a cocoon around itself and, within that structure, fulfills its destiny to dissolve into formless goo. Out of that goo begins to emerge the first cells of the butterfly.   These cells are called imaginal cells and the goo (the old) tries to destroy them!  Because of this threat, these new cells gather together into groups, and in that support, the butterfly is born.

This is our story.  The caterpillar and its self-absorbed destruction represent the old way.  The caterpillar is necessary in the creation of the butterfly, but there comes a time when it has to die for the butterfly to be born.  The butterfly, which represents the new way, is the opposite of the caterpillar.  It doesn’t destroy life – it serves life by pollinating flowers. Also it can fly far and wide, so its view is much boarder than the caterpillar.  As we grow into our ‘butterflyness,’ we too can have a view that includes everything.

You and I are being asked to become the butterfly inside of ourselves.  Part of our task is to trust our times of goo that can be so turbulent and frightening, for they are essential to our transformation.  We are also being asked to gather together into groups so that we can support one another and the world in the healing that is happening.  We are a group.  As you are reading this, there are thousands of people all around the planet that are reading it too.  And each one of you is a part of the evolutionary shift that is happening.  This is why I write these letters, offer phone groups and invite people to gather together at retreats – so that we can re-member our ‘butterflyness’ together.

So know that no matter what is happening in your life, you are an imaginal cell.  You are a part of the shift from separation to connection that is happening on our planet.   Trust what life is bringing you, and re-member the butterfly.