We Are HERE

Just before bed last night my son and I took one more glance at the swallowtail butterfly we’ve been raising. It has spent the last few days perched on its branch in the typical J-shape position a caterpillar forms just prior to pupating. It felt like Christmas morning waking up to see our friend all dressed up in his brand-new outfit. In addition to our discovery there was also a distinct crispness in the air. On the cusp of Autumn, I noticed a few leaves falling, the wind rustling the trees and everything felt saturated with change.

Momentarily bereft that we had ‘missed’ this change during sleep, once again I found myself laughing at such a notion. The change had been happening all along. There’s no line of demarcation where a caterpillar ends, and a chrysalis begins. It made me cognizant of how much of our lives is invisible and how supremely focused we are on ‘arriving’. The truth is we are always arriving. In every moment we are arriving.

It reminded me too of my yoga practice and this idea of getting into a pose. How exactly are we to determine such a thing? We are constantly moving ‘into’ and out of a pose. There are countless positions along our ascent and descent from a supposed posture. Nothing is static- not in life, not in yoga, not is the brevity of the lifespan of a butterfly. We are always in motion and the moment we narrow our sights to achieving something or ‘getting there’ we’ve missed out on life itself; we’ve missed the point. Let us celebrate the metamorphosis of life and remember that in every moment, we are exactly where we are meant to be. We are HERE.

-Chrissy Leake