Personal, Metamorphic Change

https://ehhsdean.com/2016/02/01/beyond-the-syllabus/butterfly/

Since a child, I have always been amazed with the process of metamorphosis. I mean, you start with a caterpillar and end up with a butterfly. How an amazing change! I must say, as I have gong through the years and evaluated how much this process resembles life I have come to have a greeter appreciation for how nature can teach us. Along the way of my life I have noticed that change is unpreventable. You mentality, body, and surroundings are constantly changing. Change can be a scary, stressful, and daunting thing, but it can also yield wonderful, beautiful results. Looking into oneself, evaluating, and providing feedback can lead you to make and carry out goals for positive changes and become your best self.

I do not know how much a caterpillar even knows exactly what will happen in the metamorphic process, or even if it has the smallest idea that it will become something completely different. But, I know that from the beginning of his life as a crawling creature it takes time to prepare and ensure that it is ready for what is ahead for him. I am not sure who said this, but I love their quote: "If you don't stand for something, you fall for anything." The same principal stands for us when making change, if you don't have a something that you are working toward, then you will simply go with whatever is going on around you and fall for anything that comes along your path. Along the way there will be good things, but having a focus can lead to having and being not only good, but your best.

At times, I have wondered if the process to get from a caterpillar to a butterfly is painful, and if so, how painful? I don't have a complete idea, maybe some day I'll look it up and be amazed at scientific findings, but for now I imagine that there is some sort of pain in having a change in skeleton structure and whatever else goes inside a cocoon. In our lives, realistically looking into oneself and evaluating where you we are can be difficult. We can be our worst critics as we can harshly evaluate ourselves or be too soft because of fear. We can harshly look at every thing that we believe we are doing wrong and beat ourselves up. For example you can say, this week I (a) did not work out (b) have a healthy diet (c) did not finish everything I wanted to (d) was not promoted to the position I wanted (e) did not get my relationship to where I want it to be. But, we can also be very soft and make up excuses to cover up for why we did not achieve or get to where we want to be. We can say that we (a) have too much going on (b) time was limited, or  (c) something cam up unexpectedly. Excusing ourselves can limit our ability to progress, but finding a balance in evaluating can lead to better results. When evaluating yourself, seek to be honest. Honesty might make you hurt as you realize that you are not making an effort to get to where you want, or know you can be. Honesty can stretch you as you will have to take action in ways that are not within your comfort zone. Honesty can make you want to stop looking into yourself because you don't want to face reality. But, honesty can take you to really achieve your potential, and truly become a beautiful butterfly.

Once you have determined what you want to work on, set goals and take action. You will have created your chrysalis building experience and with continuous work and evaluation, you will be ready to break the chrysalis and go out into the world and achieve greater things, and explore more surroundings.

If you want ideas on what you can do to become who you can be, here is a video by Sheri L. Dew called "Are You the Woman I Think You Are?" from a talk she gave in 1997 in a general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a little bit older, but I hope you enjoy it.

I hope that as we continuously analyze our progress throughout our lives we can continue to grow and become our very best selves.


Please comment with any thoughts that you had while reading, or would like to share with others.

Gratitude

During the last several months, I have either heard stories of or seen videos of ungrateful people.  Some of them,  particularly the video stories seem cliche. They start with someone, usually a child, not seeing how someone else, usually a parent, sacrifices basically everything for them. The child, however, does not notice because the it is blinded with pride and almost everything they get is not good enough for them. Sadly, it is not until something terrible happens to their beloved parent that reality hits them and then they begin to appreciate what has been done for them.
I share this because recently I have been thinking about how much I show my gratitude, not that I am ungrateful, but I just want to be better at showing it. I have also started to analyze if somehow I am in one of those entraped stories where I have yet to notice someone sacrificing for me, but because I am blinded by other things I do not notice. I have not come to any specific conclussion yet, but I do want to share about some people that I am grateful for and why.

Family
My family is by far my cheer team. Since before I was born Mom and Dad already loved me, I can tell by the way they talk about my Moms months of pregnancy. These two are always supportive of my smart decisions, but are ready to let me know if I am not being too smart about something. They are willing to sacrifice for me, and all my siblings. They go the extra mile to make sure I am happy. My sisters are also encouraging in the things that I do. They tell me when I am not achieving what I capable of and are always ready to give me fashion advice. My brother, in deed is one of the sweetest people I know. He is always ready to hear me talk his ear off about anythign that is going on in my life and then tries to give me advice from a man's perspective.  All together, they make sure that I am where I am suppose to be and with who I should be. They have helped me become who I am. They are great. I love them so much

Church Leaders
My Church leaders, especially those during my youth years, have taught me through their example what it means to be a true disciple of Christ. Although working with teenagers was challenging, I got to see it a little further up on my life when I got to work with some of my  own leaders, they were still very loving and willing to go the extra mile to ensure spiritual and temporal growth for each individual. My heart goes out to all who have sacrificed family or personal enjoyjment time to go out to young women summer and sports camps or weekday activities. Your examples have helped me realize the power of genuine service.

Teachers
Teachers have influenced my life in many more ways then teaching me whatever subject they specialized in. I remember more clearly those that would worry about their students enough to stop and take sometime to share life experiences and how their subject connected with life. As they shared, even at times personal experiences, it allowed me to truly value what they did. My love and appreciation grows even more when I see how much more time they input in their preparation to make sure that everything is ready for the next day, or stay many more hours after school to help the struggling students. I am very grateful for them choosing to be a teacher, especially in the schools where I attended, and am still currently attending.

Jesus Christ
Although all the previous peole have invested a lot time and probably some amount of money in me, I am at awe with what Jesus Christ has done and continues to do for me daily. Isahia describes it so well in Isaiah 53: 4-5, "Surely he hath borne our griefs, carried our sorroes: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God , and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." I know with all sureaty that he came to earth to offer himself as a perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God, to help us overcome sin and even loose the bands of death. Because of him, I know I can repent each time I need to and I can live again and be with my family forever. I know that it is because of his great love that he sacrificed everything for each one of us, and if it had only been one person in need of his great sacrifice he would have still come for the sake of that very soul. I do not completely comprehend how he made it all happen, but I know that he did and because of that I am completely grateful to him.

As I have written a little about all these wonderful people in my life, I have come to realize the power of each person. At times, we may immediately recognize how much of an impact someone has had in our lives, directly or indirectly, until much time has passed, but I hope that in one way or another we can express our gratitude for their time and dedciation towards us or what they have done to cause such an impact.