But, experiencing a metamorphosis first-hand, is all at once terrifying, thrilling, cataclysmic and wondrous. Transformation must occur and as that happens, certain protections must be created in order to ensure a safe environment for change. Each stage must be felt, and none can be skipped, because each moment connects to the next and creates a thread of process and finally, muscles must be built in order to break free from the self-made container and achieve the outcome. Freedom can be fought for and hard won, and as happens within metamorphosis, the end product can be quite breathtaking to experience.

There is a certain deliciousness to being so unabashedly unrestricted.

A Daily Art Magazine article, gives a perfect analogy for the experience of transformation and puts it in humanistic, scientific and artistic terms. “The Art of Metamorphosis,” asks us to “… imagine the universe as a rainbow linen carpet,” in which we are gathering colorful threads. As we pursue one thread, or line of thinking, the color becomes more vibrant and nuanced.

The human experience is most definitely fraught with danger and risk and, even if it doesn’t feel like it, at times, we have free will. The beauty of it, however, is entirely up to the owner of said experience.

“Those lines are neuro-connections, and represent the brain shaping Neuroplasticity—and it goes both ways,” the article continues, “adapting your mind to your circumstances, and your reality to the means you have of perceiving it.”

It’s anyone’s guess as to what the future holds and being in the midst of the tumultuous, tempestuously glorious moment, can lift you up and out of the darkness or drive you deeper into it.

“Maybe,” concludes the article, “if we keep reaching outwards, we’ll be able to pass all phases — our childhood as a blind thread collecting caterpillar, then knitting our valuable unique cocoon, and finally, bloom flying free: metamorphosing beyond a previous, restrained and biased, self.”

But, who knows, the winds of change could shift again and we could find ourselves in an entirely new realm of certainty.

The end of the beginning, so to speak. By the way, heads up. Next month’s article is “Strange Drain: When Enough is a Communal Effort.” Truth is, most certainly, stranger than fiction. Especially, when it comes to the titles of Artistic Allegory articles.