I once had a dream that I was a beautiful butterfly, “la Bella Farfalla”. I was free and flitting here and there, everywhere, just experiencing life. I remembered it was a time when I experienced the world as it came to me and through me as mystical, magical and miraculous. I remember just existing in nature as one with it all. And, I remember feeling the delight of the wind beneath my wings. Then one day, my life changed when a passerby told me that the world was not as magical as it seemed. He told me that I was not a beautiful butterfly and I could not fly. Instead of trusting what I knew to be true, I believed him. Because I no longer had faith in my abilities, I stopped mid flight and immediately became a caterpillar. I started to crawl place to place always with a renewed sense of fear that I would be harmed. Feeling a sense of melancholy because over time I had forgotten what it felt like to be free. I went for days, months, years depressed that I was in a strange and scary world where life felt difficult and not carefree and magical as I remembered.
After some time where I felt stuck and trapped by my newfound circumstances, I started to pray that I would be shown a better way. I knew that my life was meant to be so much more than what I was experiencing but I had no idea how to make it so. I began to pray that somehow I would be shown a way to reconnect to the joy of living. Then, one very blessed day, I dreamt that I met another butterfly. I was in awe of her beauty and in awe of her grace. And then the unthinkable, she spoke to me. She said she knew me well and reminded me that everything I was looking for was there inside me all along. She said that she knew my inner beauty but for some reason I had forgotten it was still there. She reminded me that there were times before when we would fly together over the beautiful countryside, over the powerful ocean, and over the magnificent mountains. She reminded me that it was time to wake up to my truth once again. It was time to have faith, step inside the dark cocoon and experience a great shift in my consciousness that would allow me to reconnect to that inner freedom I once knew. She said that I would experience great challenges inside that dark cocoon but be not afraid. She told me to trust and have faith that when the change was complete, I would break out into the light of day and would be able to fly, even soar to great heights as I remembered how to use my wings and feel the wind beneath them. And feeling the loving energy I was experiencing from this encounter, I decided to trust that it was time. I entered the dark night of the soul, embraced the challenges of transformation as they appeared and once again emerged on the other side more beautiful and more powerful than ever. For as I effortlessly stepped into who I was, my wings took flight and I was the beautiful butterfly, “la Bella Farfalla”, once again ready to share my own journey and inspire others to do the same.
