In our children's lives and often in the teenage years we recognize these moments of change and growth, and the excesses of emotion and struggle that accompany these changes, for what they are: growing pains. They are phases we must pass through to enter into the next stage of life. What we seem to forget or ignore is that we keep growing and changing our whole lives. We don't suddenly become a Grown Up one day, and that's it. We continue to evolve and change as our life experiences mold us and shape us on a daily basis. We find love, we marry, we have children, and all of these major events in our lives affect us. Isn't it natural that some of those same feelings of insecurity, fear of the unknown, and even downright panic would accompany these transitions in adulthood? Not only is there insecurity and fear, there is also some exhilaration and excitement as we stretch our wings a bit and learn what we really can do. Hopefully there is that wild, out of control, anything can happen, and "I can make anything happen" feeling too. It makes us alive. It's what makes us different from the rocks and trees, the mouse and the monkey. We learn and grow and hopefully, improve.
I have a lot more to say about all this (honestly, when don't I have a lot to say?), but for now I'll content myself with a quote. I'm a word collector and when I come across the exact word, or phrase, or way of expressing a thought, feeling, or idea I swiftly scoop it up and hoard it like a precious jewel. This is one of them:
"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a beautiful butterfly."
I'm still trying to find that butterfly.
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