Real Transformers
Pundits talk about transformation as if, at best, it’s something we acquiesce to because there is no other choice. Not true. Kicking and screaming are also features of personal growth, as are denial and in some people, a defiant ‘digging-in-of-the-heels’ too.
VPL
VPL is short for Very Penneylane. They’re my take on everyday lessons from life. Lessons learnt and others where I missed the boat completely. Life’s long or short, depending on which end of the paddle you draw. Either way, being stuck up a creek without one makes for some interesting observations.
About that Lesson
Personal growth is rarely comfortable but the transformation may always be memorable. It may be remembered for a number of reasons, mainly that it’s rarely a walk in the park and that it requires effort from us.
In fact teachers, coaches and do-gooders tend to fill our heads with butterflies, failing to point out that the crawling grub on the same bush is our current state, now but not yet. Potential-us crawling under the radar long before we get our wings.
Inglamorous that grub I know, but so how it is! Many of those same teachers, coaches and do-gooders skip that part repeatedly in the telling, yet to me, those small beginnings offer us insight for acknowledgement: the slow walk, the predatory nature of bigger things outside ourselves, the long drop and harder slog back up again when we do take a fall. So why not talk about those things too? Oh right, they’re inglamourous.
Douglas Adams is quoted as saying, “A learning experience is one of those things that say, “you know that thing you just did, don’t do that!” I like his ‘on-the-way-thinking’ but there’s MORE! What if you did the don’t (we all know we do!).
At the very least, life raps us over the knuckles, and maybe we learn what’s hot and not to touch it. On the other hand, we may not live to tell the story because we’ve refused to learn the lesson. And, perhaps others will where we didn’t.
I’m not a fan of the ‘don’t do that’ in the sense of exploring life (as opposed to wilfully and intentionally destroying it). Otherwise, how do you grow? How do you get stronger? How do you learn what’s hot and what’s not and when staying away from a thing is better for you? How can you learn to discern good risk from blind following and live to learn another day? You come to it as a grub, not a butterfly.
In reality, the average life-span of a butterfly is quite short. A month is a long time. For some, the pupae stage is it, tough break. So here’s my question to you today, where’s the real transformation happening in your life? Will you float like a butterfly or will life sting you like a bee? I encourage you, float on!
© Gail Penney 2011 :: PREVIOUS BLOG POST: CogNition
