The Cocoon

Strange isn't it...how some things in life are better left alone. Better left untouched, unchanged, unmoved...just simply understood and left alone. But here's the difficulty in that. There is a deep, dark, uncontrollable desire deep within the human soul to poise everything in life toward the direction of change. We long so badly to control everything, that we have even blindly, and selfishly disillusioned ourselves into thinking that we can control, overpower, manipulate and master even the smallest fractions of Life itself. Like a child who follows a caterpillar, and sets it on a tree, and lets it feed on the lush green leaves, hoping, watching and anticipating for the day the tiny creature will grow...learning more and more about the beauty of the 100 legged thing, about the burden it bares, about the journey it's traveled, about the the road it still has to overcome. And then one day, that little child will find that the friend he knew, and learned to love and appreciate has vanished, and all that's left is a hard and stony cocoon.

Now we all know and understand the concept of the caterpillar, and it's evolution into a cocoon, and that from the cocoon will emerge a butterfly, a thing of beauty, a creature of delight, the signature upon springs beautiful canvas. However...what they don't talk about is the hardest part of the process of it's growth, not just for the caterpillar but for the person watching too...the period they don't talk about, is the concept of leaving something well enough alone, the space needed to let things grow, the time it takes for something in life to become more than anyone ever thought possible including itself...what they don't talk about...is Distance.

When you grow close to something, and share an incomprehensible understanding with it, an undeniable connection, a bond unlike any other - the hardest thing to bare, is the waiting, the wondering, the longing, the wanting, the needing, the intoxicating desire to want to simply touch the hardened shell and split open the thinly built layer, the crusty shell, the protective barrier, the fine space needed between friends, the one thing that allows that beautiful, tiny fraction of nature to actually grow into something wonderful...that much, they don't tell...they don't talk about the distance. You see, some things in Life simply cannot be controlled, manipulated, overpowered and undermined. Some things in Life must simply be left well enough alone, or you risk shattering a gravely important process in Life, a crucial moment of evolution, the crescendo to that which lifts us to the highest point of growth in our life...and then, all your left with is an unborn butterfly, a broken cocoon, and a dying caterpillar...simply the fragments of what once was a beautiful friendship...

So the truth is, that if you want things to grow, let them happen naturally, in their own time and space. Because some things are simply left well enough alone. Because like most things on Earth, in Life...like all good friendships...they simply require a little Patience...and some Distance to grow.