Julia Butterfly Hill
Berkeley, CA
In our culture, we are manifesting an addiction to comfortability. We are birthing an addict society. I went through a time in my life where I was a major drug and alcohol addict. And so I know, on a very real level, what addiction is. As a society, we are being birthed into an addiction culture, where you need consumerism, you need comfortability. And you go through the same withdrawals, all the same things you go through as a drug addict or alcoholic. I see even the most conscious among us making the most unconscious decisions based on our addiction to comfortability.
I love using the example of the caterpillar becoming the butterfly: the caterpillar has a pretty cool life. It’s chill. It’s safe; it doesn’t have too many threats, it’s usually camouflaged. Yet, the caterpillar has this deeper calling that defies description within itself, and it tells the caterpillar, there’s something more for you. In many ways, we are that character. The caterpillar has to trust it can follow this great unknown, this great mystery.
And fear keeps us from trusting in that great mystery. To me, the divine is the great mystery. Every time I take a breath and I’m amazed that I can breathe! The caterpillar has to liquefy, and the caterpillar even has to have its head pop off in order to transform into a butterfly. So it’s hard work! We are afraid of what’s inside ourselves. But the caterpillar knows. The caterpillar knows how to trust. It knows that even the cocoon can become too comfortable.
The caterpillar knows that it has to push through the barriers of comfortability. Once the caterpillar transforms, it takes a moment of grace to flap its wings. And then it takes a leap to take its first flight. I think that our fear consistently keeps us from that process; it’s what keeps us from knowing the magic of this space. We say to ourselves, that edge looks a bit too scary, I’m just gong to chill here.
No submissions yet.