The Goo inside the Cocoon

I have learned many thing from the people I meet on Twitter. Today, two truths:The first from Tom Hirons aka @coyopa. This complex and mysterious human, a former WIlderness Rites of Passage guide from the UK, told me about The Bardo.The Bardo is a resting place. A clear flat lake of light and silence. White. Space.I have been to that lake - which is how I know that sometimes, the bardo is also like the inside of a cocoon, where so Sarah Robinson tells me, a caterpillar goes to disintegrate into goo.From the looks of things, in this video, the caterpillar dissolves to goo, sheds its caterpillar skin and then the goo forms a hard protective shell.In that way, the caterpillar is both goo and cocoon; it is also, caterpillar and butterfly.Making the CocoonInside the CocoonIn Waldorf schools, parents are discouraged from taking photos or videos of the children. It is held that seeing images of themselves will make the children self-conscious at at a time when they are supposed to be living in a state of blended consciousness with the world around them.A state of blended consciousness with the world around us.It is believed that seeing images of themselves disturbs pretend play, the innate and critical stage of childhood that gives us the ability to use the imagination to create worlds.We use the imagination to create worlds.After the cocoon, you climb out, swollen with afterbirth, wings wet. Fresh from the Bardo, you do not just fly off. You hang around, collecting yourself, building courage and strength. You practice flapping your wings.I was the second person to speak.I am always an eager sharer. Hand in the air, willing to be seen. But because I was not wearing makeup and my nose was red and runny, I opted out of the opportunity to be recorded on video.That was not the real reason I was camera shy.I knew the power of memory. I knew that, without a video of my breakdown and breakthrough, I would have only the perspective of the experience from the inside. No self-conscious images to pick apart: Look at that outfit, your hair was a mess, how could you have said THAT????The butterfly has only its own perspective, emerging from the cocoon where it has tranformed from goo to winged creature: It felt like I would burst with joy. I had to push and press and fight my way to the light. And the light, the light, the light. That was all that mattered.The story that I told that day