A few months ago when I was cleaning out my office I stumbled across my old high school yearbooks from days gone by. As I flipped through the pages fondly recalling my life in the late 1970s, a common theme emerged from the odes my friends left --‘don’t ever change.’ I guess we thought once we crossed the threshold into adulthood we were done with our metamorphosis. But 28 years later, I now know otherwise.

Thankfully, I have CHANGED! Sometimes by choice and sometimes out of necessity. And the older I get the more I realize that I am not confined to being the same person I was even a week ago. For many (me included) the unknown is by far more frightening than the known. But never having the courage to change does not allow us to become who we are truly meant to be.

My favorite synonym for change is transform. Just like a butterfly is transformed from a not-so pretty caterpillar into a magnificent beauty, without the caterpillar we can never have the butterfly.

While doing a little research on a butterfly’s life cycle I discovered that it takes 6-8 weeks for a small egg laid on a leaf to change into a spectacular creature that children love to chase. Sadly though, within 2-4 weeks of this transformation this stunning insect has lived its life leaving us waiting until the next generation emerges.

Now many of you are probably wondering what this has to do with this journey we are on-am I right?

So here’s my take. If you review the time frame of the butterfly’s life cycle you realize that the poor insect spends more of its existence in transformation and very little time relishing in its splendor. What we admire is not the egg, the larva, or cocoon, but the end result of the transformation-the butterfly.

Aren’t many of us the same way? We spend so much time wanting to be the butterfly that we fail to appreciate the transformation. We fail to appreciate where we are today. Our desire is to get to the end result without having to walk through the storm. We are not meant to remain stagnant in our lives, otherwise we would be the same as we always have been. For it is through determination and perseverance that we begin this alteration. And while the journey isn’t always easy, when we accomplish each goal, big or small, we CHANGE.

In order to embrace a healthy lifestyle we must integrate healthy changes into our every day life. And when we do, we are no longer who we were when we embarked on this journey; we are who we are meant to be--healthy and vibrant.

So when I read the sweet notes of decades gone by I am grateful that I am not the same as I was years ago. I am learning to embrace the journey of transformation and one day will emerge the magnificent butterfly I was meant to be.

Have you made changes in your life or do you feel stagnant? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Do you think people fear change because they don’t know what that change will bring?