Still Becoming…

I saw this picture as I was browsing Pinterest (going down a whole other rabbit hole lol) and I thought of how beautiful butterflies truly are. I also thought about the fact that they do not start out that way. There are 4 stages to the Butterfly’s life cycle (Ovum, Caterpillar, Pupa, and the Adult Butterfly (Imago). Each stage of a butterfly’s life is unique and different, as well as transformative and essential. I suppose we humans aren’t that different in that regard. Each stage of life that we go through morphs us into the next version of ourselves that we need to be for that next step towards our purpose.

There are often times I have thought and wished that I could go back to a certain phase in my life and skip the things that happened during that step. Skip all of the mistakes I made, all of the hard battles that had to be fought, and meeting all of the people who weren’t who I thought they were. But ultimately by doing that I would also be skipping all of the lessons that I learned during that time, along with the victories that I had, and meeting all of the people who were more than I ever imagined they would be.

You see, if you could go back and do things at a certain point in life over again, you would be erasing the steps that shaped you and stripping away the very foundation that has made you the person that you are today. I’m not sure that walking through life with everything perfectly laid out for you and never having made any mistakes would be the way to go. Mistakes and struggle are what makes us stronger and smarter.

Oh, I’m not saying that I like the struggle. I most certainly do not. I wouldn’t be opposed to having a little less struggle in my life actually, but I think that wishing for absolutely zero hard times and smooth sailing isn’t necessarily the way either. I don’t know if I would appreciate the small victories that I do get as much if I didn’t have to scratch and fight for every single one of them. Every stage that I have been through has woven together the fabric of who I am as a person and as a creative.

We are all still becoming who we were ultimately meant to be but it’s going to take some of us more phases than others to get there. While each stage may not be as pretty as the final one and may leave us a little battered and bruised, in the end the beauty of what is to become is worth the journey. In those moments when the road to where you are going becomes a little rougher than what was expected, remember that it’s only one stage. You will get through that stage, and you will be even more prepared for the next phase of the journey. Like the life cycle of a butterfly, each stage is us peeling away the layers of past versions of ourselves, shedding the old, and growing into the new.

In order to get to that beautiful, final stage, the one where we reach the goals, we had been striving towards all along, we have to go through those other stages. We can’t skip the steps that seem unpleasant and too hard because those are the ones that build our strength. Those uncomfortable steps are the ones that give us the drive to push through and move forward. So be uncomfortable, be frustrated even, but let those feelings of discomfort, of frustration, be the driving force to get you to those next stages. To get you to your ultimate purpose. The one where you become all you were ever meant to be.

Until next time… #BeFearless #BePersistent #BeSteadfast

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Jimmetta Carpenter

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