Thursday, September 16, 2010

I’ve always been inspired by the phoenix, the mystical bird that consumes itself in flames and then rises out of its own ashes. My fascination probably stems from my empathy to the bird, feeling I’ve done the same act more times than I care to recall through the course of my life.

One aspect of the phoenix that intrigues me is how its ways are mystical. How the changes take place in the phoenix are not readily apparent just as with a caterpillar that undergoes its metamorphous sealed within a chrysalis.

Like the phoenix and caterpillar, I find my self-improvement changes to be evident in how the new and improved me conducts herself while others, myself often included, are at a loss to identity exactly what transpired.

Going through this personally, I know what it feels like. But when I get the opportunity to see it occur in others, I find myself perplexed, wondering what brought about the change? Was some life-altering event a trigger? Where they looking to self-improve? Was it a conscious effort? Or did it just sort of…happen? Did the changes they underwent fill them with a sense of personal gain and self-reward, such as I get? Or do they take it all in stride?

Every second of every day, people around us behave like the phoenix. What rises out of the ashes for some is better, while others might have done better to remain where they were—at least for the time being. It’s up to us to recognize their changes as well as those that take place within ourselves. And, if we are truly in touch, we will ask ourselves how and why those changes took place, for it is through that revealing process that we find the strength to rise again like the phoenix.