Dear  —————–,

You and I talked once before about trying to look at your situation as sort of like a monk in a monastery, a place where men withdraw from the world to reflect, to study, and to focus on their faith through prayer and meditation. Some do so to become self-aware and self-realized individuals, but the monastery is their life. For you, however, the “monastery” will not be your life; you will be returning to the world to live. So, something I hadn’t thought about in a long time came to mind, something from the natural world that I want you to consider.

Do you know what a chrysalis is? The word is from Latin, but the Latin speakers (the Romans) got it from the Greeks; it was from their word for “gold.” Well, in nature, a chrysalis is something that is used when going through a transformation between immature and mature stages of life. For example, when a caterpillar is fully grown, it makes a button of silk which it uses to fasten its body to a leaf or a twig. Then the caterpillar’s skin comes off for the final time. Under this old skin is a hard skin called a chrysalis. During this stage, the caterpillar does not move at all, although sometimes it will produce sounds to scare away predators. But, one of the wonders of nature is the fact that after this stage of life, the caterpillar – a thing that once could only crawl – has transformed into a butterfly, a thing that can fly. All of that happens because of the time spent in the chrysalis stage.

Of course, you don’t have the luxury of being able to not move at all, but if you know that you are at a point in your life where you are not interested in what the other “monks” are doing, then there is nothing wrong with limiting yourself to the benefits of what a “monastery” can provide: a chance to reflect, to study, and to focus. Let that be your hard skin, your chrysalis. After all, you’ll be returning to the world soon. Might as well prepare yourself to fly.

Love,