The Butterfly Effect: A Woman’s Metamorphosis

A few mornings ago, while walking my dog with my husband, he led to something that stopped me in my tracks. A small leafless tree on the sidewalk was covered—caterpillars inching along the bark and tiny cocoons tucked into the creases like secret notes from nature. It was like nothing I had seen before.

A few days later, a few houses down, I turned a corner and there it was: a butterfly bush completely alive with movement—different-colored butterflies looping and dancing in the sun.. It was magical and I stood and watched them and then took some close up photos.

In the span of a few days, nature showed me the whole arc: from crawling to cocoon to flight. And I thought, This is us. This is the work we do as women.

There are miracles happening in nature all the time. We all know this, I hope.

A small, steady caterpillar surrenders to the cocoon, dissolves into something unrecognizable, and then—when it’s time—emerges with wings. We love the part where she flies. We often overlook the part where she melts.

Women’s transformational journeys are like that. We move through seasons of gathering, seasons of dissolving, and seasons of becoming. Not because we’re broken, but because life is motioning and inviting us into our next version of ourselves.