It’s a beautiful thing, the process of a human hibernation. And the process of Metamorphosis: from egg to larval to chrysalis to adult.

The pupa stages of ourselves, the messy parts we wish to cover – those parts may one day be parts you wish to hug and offer grace and compassion, once you’ve emerged as a moth or a butterfly.

I’ve captured my pupa stage, documented it with love and radical acceptance.

Through photos and writing and art and dance,

I embrace the beauty of it all.

Going from the ‘wanting to disappear and not be seen’, to then relearning how to be vulnerable and let others in, to then ‘piece by piece, taking down the walls built around yourself’… to then wanting to be seen. No longer needing the protection and safety net of the cocoon.

Writing this feels like a giant hug to myself.

We all deserve to embrace our messy, and simultaneously celebrate the rising.

We all deserve to allow for ourselves to go into a forced isolation, hibernation, metamorphosis.

That’s where the magic happens.

That’s where the fire comes from,

that’s the magically flammable sweet spot of how a Phoenix comes to be.

A Phoenix isn’t born, they are created – recycled – from the ashes of what they once were.

All parts are honored, all parts create the fire.