One day, a small opening appeared on a cocoon. A man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.
Then, it seems to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could not go any further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and opened the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a withered body, it was tiny and had shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would open, enlarge and expand, to be able to support the butterfly’s body, and become firm.
Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a withered body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man, in his kindness and his goodwill did not understand was that the restricting cocoon, and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening, was forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings–so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. We would never be able to fly.
I came across this story while researching and advocating for a positive outlook on the transition into menopause. I had been growing increasingly tired of the way this very normal phase was being medicalized.
Menopause, in our modern day, has the messaging and connotation of death, disease and decline but in truth is one of the most powerful and miraculous times a woman will ever experience.
You see, centuries before us, as women aged, they were the respected wise elders. Teachings were handed down from mother to daughter and passed from village to village to help one another stay well. Not so much today. Today, in a society that glorifies youth, women are literally dying to get nipped, tucked, cut or sucked in order to stave off the aging process and we use words like “hormonal” (or even “hormotional”) to describe almost anything a woman is experiencing outside of perfect. A woman’s hormones are looked at as a cross to bear, and menopause has become a catchall for every stressor, loss and physical change that a woman faces at midlife.
We are going to change that! Menopause is one of the most profound and normal—yet misunderstood—stages in a woman’s life. In this blog, I am going to provide not only knowledge and information about symptoms and health concerns for a women at this time, but also facilitate true understanding of the beautiful metamorphosis that happens when we as women simply come to the end or our natural childbearing years.
For more information, check out Dr. Holly Lucille’s website, or buy her book, Creating and Maintaining Balance: A Woman’s Guide to Safe Natural Hormone Health
