Here’s a reading I first heard back in 2018 that has stuck with me through the years. Maybe you too are going through a transformation and could use a reminder that while the process may not be graceful, it is necessary.
The process of hatching is actually a terrifying event if you look at it from the bird’s perspective.
In the moments before birth the small hatchling has eaten all its food, and its growing body presses against every contour and curve of the shell. There is no more room. There is no more food. The chick hatches because its body is painfully cramped inside the world of the egg, and it is starving.
There is so much discomfort that the chick is driven to peck its way into whatever is on the other side of the world, whatever is on the other side of safety, because there is nothing else to do and still survive. The world literally breaks apart. The chick eats bits of its own shell, and its body squeezes through the emerging cracks.
Hatching is not graceful. There is wrestling and rolling around. There is crying and prying. There is exhaustion, and power naps. There is stumbling and trying to hold the head up while getting feet underneath the body. Hatching is not graceful. It is beautiful to behold, but I daresay the chick would not describe it that way. I think the chick would say: hatching is necessity. As Mark Nepo writes: “Once everything it has relied on falls away, the chick is born. It doesn’t die, but falls into the world.”
I think most of us can name a time when where we were, what we were doing, how we were being, was so uncomfortable, so constraining, that there was nothing to be done but peck a way into whatever was on the other side of the egg we have relied on, whatever was on the other side of safety, because there was no other way we were going to survive. It might have felt like death, but instead, each of us fell into a new world. Whether we like it or not, discomfort—feeling cramped, feeling soul-hungry—is the seed of transformation.
Transformation is change that extends beyond the boundaries of our worldview. There is no way the hatchling can imagine what is on the other side of the egg. It is discomfort that drives the chick to risk everything, to go beyond its worldview. This is transformation.
- Rev. Ruth MacKenzie
Some questions to journal on:
What are times in my life when things have broken apart and I’ve landed in a new world?
What transformation am I currently living into?
How might I nourish myself during the transition?
PS: Transformation is one of the core themes in Alchemy Lab that we explore throughout the program, and we support each other through with the power of community. If this sparks your curiosity, the next cohort of Alchemy Lab will be in September (heads up that early bird ends in about a month!).
An experiment: Let’s make a zine together!
An idea came to me while hiking recently: a vision flashed in my head of a collective zine made up of imagery, writing, and explorations by the beautiful souls in Circle of Magic (that’s you!). For those who aren’t familiar with the term, a zine is a self-published, DIY mini magazine. They make me think back to the rad feminist punk movement of the 80s and 90s. Those chicks weren’t taking sh*t from anybody, and they were publishing their own work their way. Let’s be like those girls!
If you’re interested in participating, here’s the deal:
This whole thing will be old school, so you’ll submit work via snail mail. Your pieces can be multiple pages, but keep them less than 5.5”x8.5”
The theme of the zine is INSPIRATION so keep your submissions at least loosely connected to that idea. (Some jumping off point questions to get you thinking: What does inspiration look like for me? Where and how does it strike? What’s the role of inspiration in my life?)
Send your submission in by August 18th.
If you’re down to participate in this fun experiment, as a thank you I’ll mail you a copy of the finished zine along with a small original artwork by me. <3 Reach out below if you’d like to participate and I’ll send you all the details.
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