Growing Quietly

Last year my daughter brought back a big, plump larva of an elephant beetle from her kindergarten. After a couple of weeks of wiggling around in the soil, it buried itself snugly in the layers of soil and turned into a pupa. I grew quite attached to this little being and waited patiently… day after day, hoping that it would come out the other side alive.

This nature’s design - the quiet sitting before the transformation - might be something that we may be forgetting as humans in this day and age.

I find that we often attach our worth to ‘visible’ achievements - what job titles we have, what projects we complete, what accolades we receive. Our attention is constantly focused on producing results and moving up in life that we barely stop. Problems or challenges are treated as things to solve as quickly as possible so that we can move on with our lives.

When is the last time that you have given yourself the time to space to tinker, incubate, wonder, be confused, listen to the many voices within and outside, get unstuck and get stuck again - neither moving forward or backward for days, months, possibly years?

This state might not look like much from the outside, just like a cocoon or a pupa looks to be non-changing from the outside. However, during this incubation period, an amazing transformation is taking place within, and it is absolutely fundamental for the metamorphosis process.

The upward moving, positive appraisal, the winning would feel good. On the other hand, the not knowing, the non-movement, the ambiguity may be accompanied by feelings of frustration and anxiety. While it may not feel good at times, what if we treated this phase not as a ‘negative’ thing but rather, an important period to lean into the discomfort and understand more about ourselves to help us transform deeply from within? There are times to act and there are times to wait, simply because we need more space and time to charge and be ready to act. What if we allowed ourselves to give into the rhythm that nature intended for our growth?

After days and days of quiet incubation, what came of our little pupa? It did indeed transform into a shiny, strong elephant beetle that I watched with wonder and grew to really care for.

With good wishes, we sent it off into the woods for its next journey to come.