A butterfly emerges

Sometimes, I liken myself to the caterpiller. It is ugly and fat and moving slowly. I spin myself into a cocoon, allowing the darkness to take over.

Some people think of a cacoon as a safe place. Hiding you from harm. For me it is a place to hide from everything. It seals out those that I love, those I trust and those who love and trust me. It leaves me without a voice, without my sight. I am tightly within something I have created myself, unable to move, struggling to breathe, searching for a way out.

Suddenly there is a spot of light and I strain towards it. My mind, my body weak from the darkness. But I see it anyway. I struggle to move towards it. The darkness continues to hold me, trying to coax me with it's twisted sense of safety.

I hear voices, whispering of love and support, calling down into the darkness, urging me to fight my way out. It becomes confusing and I am torn.

I hesitate, sometimes, for so long that the voices become just one or two voices, still speaking of love, happiness, good things to come, continuing to urge me towards the light and hope flares inside me as I realize how cramped it feels. How lonely I am in this darkness.

So begins my descent out of darkness. Towards the light. Towards the warmth of the sunshine. It is almost blinding as my face begins to push through, and now that I feel the sunshine warming me, I know this is where I want to be.

Desperately I press forward, my eyes adjusting to the outside world again and I can finally smile. I see things clearly now.

Suddenly I am without the cacoon. The pressing darkness trapping me within is no more. My heart soars, as my wings unfold and I begin to see the world around me with clarity.

I feel beautiful. I feel free and unhindered. I feel happy as I float on the words of love and support that linger on the wind.

I know that butterflies do not live long. That eventually I will be reborn into another caterpiller and the process with begin again. I know too though, that there will be those who will help me out of the cacoon to become the beautiful butterfly, no matter how little time I will have to fly.

Thank you. For loving me. For being there for me. For encouraging me to never give up. For reminding me of all that is good in my life. For being my friends.

Thank you for helping this butterfly soar.