Cleared for Takeoff

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Meade, and somewhere in our conversation about transformation, we found ourselves talking about butterflies.

And I learned a few things I haven't been able to stop thinking about.

The word larva comes from the Latin word for mask. And when a caterpillar enters its chrysalis, something extraordinary begins to happen. Cells called imaginal cells help give rise to the butterfly.

Seriously. They're called imaginal cells.

As if nature itself is reminding us that imagination belongs at the heart of transformation. That something within us can already hold the possibility of what we have yet to become.

And it gets better.

The ancient Greek word psyche means both soul and butterfly. As though the Greeks understood that the awakening of the soul, much like the emergence of a butterfly, requires a kind of surrender. Something must dissolve. Something must be released. Something must die so that something else can live.

Perhaps transformation isn't so much about becoming someone new as it is about letting go of everything that has been masking who we've been all along.

So, if you're ready to lose the mask, you may just be cleared for takeoff.

Ashton