It seems so long ago that the Re-birth occurred for Jack. An epiphany is a good description or perhaps a sudden awareness of being (that one sounds a bit new age perhaps) This event was sudden but had many events and a ‘cocoon’ before it occurred. Jack wrote about it in the column, ‘Consuming Fire Fan into Flame”, published on December 21^st of 2021.

The back story was an escape from hibernation, a cocoon that Jack did not see nor notice. He was swaddled up sort of comfy in his life of sorts before the re-birth. Perhaps you have read some of those stories as well. They are all true. There is one thing about a cocoon that is necessary, growth and strength acquisition. It is common and Jack saw it last spring, it was hanging beneath a milk weed leaf. A place where a Monarch butterfly was taking shape.

Dangling from that leaf, built by a worm that crawled up and used it’s spit to anchor itself. It spun the chrysalis (another name for cocoon) somehow. It’s called metamorphosis and the study can be described as such. Perhaps a good word would be a scientific focused study on the metamorphic process’? One such study answered the question: “Is it painful for the butterfly?” Through extensive electric wave analysis on an oscilloscope, it was determined that it was not painful. Go ahead and chuckle at that one. Same folks that track the emotions of carrots that know you are coming to yank it out of the ground. I don’t even want to know what that would see in me. More later on that. Jack’s growth was very painful but also necessary. Don’t need an oscilloscope to see that.

To get on with the epiphany Jack experienced, just thinking about that monarch’s life was stunning enough.

Why was it designed that way? And the pivotal evidence seen, was the gold ring around the very top of the chrysalis Small gold dots, perfectly spaced and a very strong message indeed is there, if we choose to look at it.

First off, what do we usually associate with gold rings? Marriage and crowns for honor. A king or a Queen perhaps. Soon enough, the chrysalis splits open and the Monarch begins to emerge. Can you even imagine what sort of process this is? The wings fully developed and folded up like a plane in the hanger of an aircraft carrier, just waiting for the freedom of flight.

How does this miracle of transformation apply to us? Jack has found himself just trying out those wings he was given not too long ago. Wings that not only speak freedom but purpose and direction. A flight path, a sudden internal gyro that stabilizes his glide or flapping through his short life he has been given. It seems short when many decades cruise by with the longing for something more. We have been built and created for that something more. We hunger for it. We do everything in our power and wisdom to live as long as possible, but it is only vanity to grasp the wind. As we grasp at the wind, the astonishing thing is an answer to that hunger for more. A meaning and purpose and beauty that we, in our chrysalis have been waiting for. Eternity to wear that gold crown and hang out with the creator of all and gaze upon His glorious splendor as he grasps us and gives us the crown, as we gaze upon the beauty of real treasure. The story and promise of crowned beauty beyond description. If we desire this transformation with all our heart, soul, and spirit, the treasure will be ours forever. It’s pretty good. Jack Gator