Something I'm grateful for in nature is the caterpillar - chrysalis - butterfly sequence. We've ordered caterpillars by mail for the last couple years (who knew this was a thing you could do!!) and watched the whole life cycle. They arrive as tiny little caterpillars, then grow rapidly, exponentially bigger. Then, as if it's programmed into them, they climb to a hanging spot and form a J, like in the picture above. That J eventually turns into the crysalis, where they hang out for days to weeks - their bodies can tell if conditions are good to come out (?!!). Then they emerge as beautiful butterflies, ready to fly out and take on the world.
I wouldn't be me if I didn't also at least mention how beautiful this symbolism is. The creature that starts as an ugly, ground dwelling insect does what he's made to do: eats and eats; builds; rests; and through these steps, emerges as one of nature's most beautiful creatures, and a helpful pollinator. When you're in the preparation or growth / early stages of anything in life and it's feeling like two steps forward and one step back, it's helpful to see both the dramatic and consistent nature of the caterpillar to butterfly ttransformation, and take hope from it.
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