The monarch butterfly forms an elegant cocoon that looks like gold-trimmed jewelry. Inside, the tiny animal is in its least attractive form as it transforms from a pretty striped caterpillar to a lovely butterfly. Just because someone looks good doesn’t mean they aren’t wrestling inside.
What do you do to put on an attractive front when you are struggling?
Cocoanuts seem to be the latest fad food: cocoanut oil, cocoanut flour, cocoanut sugar, cocoanut water—it’s supposed to fight infection, fix your skin, cut your cholesterol and any number of other wonders. But to a cocoanut tree, its wondrous nuts are even more miraculous. They are a way of reaching the tree far out into the world, as the rolling, floating seeds move out to plant new trees.
How do you see your life purpose in a way that is different from how most people see you?
The Christian holiday of Epiphany marks the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus. They gave the baby gold, frankincense and myrrh. The baby gave them the revelation of the divine in human form. Sometimes you get the most surprising gifts in the most surprising places.
When has a gift come as an epiphany?
Gone away is the bluebird, here to stay is a new bird…It somehow seems like the new bird should be a cardinal, as dramatic in his red plumage as the bluebird, but utterly different. When something beautiful flies away it can be hard to trust that something just as lovely—but not at all the same—could be winging its way toward you.
What have you been able to see only when something else was gone?
What you’re supposed to do
when you don’t like a thing is change it.
If you can’t change it,
change the way you think about it.”
―Maya Angelou
What in your life would benefit from a change in how you think about it?
