I sit in the "In between" on my rock in the sea, I have my feet in the warm water and the blue green depths embrace them like old friends.   I lean and look into the rich depths and sunlight creates streams of light within the first few feet of water.   I sigh, I am so tired of sighing it seems.    The Universal energies are shifting so fast at the moment that most people feel like they are in the "Wash, Rinse, Repeat" cycle and still I hear "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming".  It is very hard to explain all the changes, since they are happening at multiple levels all the time at the moment.

Best way for me to describe it is like a "shedding" but a "sharpening" of clarity at the same time.  It has been absolutely awesome to notice people "getting" their lives, or their situations, much, much faster than before and this directly reflects all the changes in growth within self.   So much is happening in terms of people's colours, and vibration and frequency, more and more are becoming aware of this, and it's overdue!

I look up from surveying the water and see Tai delicately treading across the top of the water towards me, robes pulled up slightly from feet, even though he cannot get wet feet, makes me snort laughter.  He moves and stands on the rock and the eyebrows soar and he looks at me considering.  "I'm not laughing AT you really".  Impossibly the eyebrows soar slightly higher and he looks very slightly indignant.   He looks ever so slightly out of place on my rock on the sea and I take pity on him.

"Zen" and we are in the Zen Garden, the eyebrows lower and eyes twinkle at me.  I sigh, I love that by thought you can change things.   There was a time when we all knew this and I am not sure though at that time we didn't take it for granted either, however, there is a movement in peoples memories and a sparking of understanding of lives that have been before and abilities that they have that lie latent and awaking in them.   It simply is now time.

Tai nods, "Only when you have accepted the Essence of Self, will you understand all you are".    He moves and sinks gracefully into lotus position in front of me, holds out one hand and opens it.   Right in the middle of his palm is a beautiful green caterpillar, it is so many shades of green and delicate yellow underneath.   He moves his other hand slightly and the caterpillar spins in such fast motion that in moments it is encased in a bright green cocoon, all trace of the caterpillar is gone.

I watch as the caterpillar is suspended above his hand and in the air.    He watches me with eyes of deepest wisdom, and slightly moves his other hand.  In fast motion, the cocoon changes in colour, rich and deepening, the colour inside shifts and changes, and soon, it splits at the bottom and emerges the most beautiful gold and blue butterfly. It is like watching time lapse filming, so sped up.   The butterfly pumps out her wings and opens them to the sunlight.  I draw in my breath at the intricate details on her winds and the beautiful golds and blues of her wings.   Tai holds out his hand and the butterfly flicks it's wings once and then delicately flutters and alights on the offered hand.   She turns like a ballerina in a small circle.  Tai leans in and eyes gleaming, whispers to her and she brightens like a new day on the edge of the horizon.   In a flash she has taken off and soared into the Zen Garden.

I follow her path as she delicately flies out of sight.     Tai is watching me gently.   I look at him, so many things are going through my mind, at so many levels.  I understand that he is telling me that there is always growth, that for us to shift our understanding, we really must go through a processes of almost reinventing ourselves and our understanding.  I also get that we need to understand that it does not happen like time lapse, in our real time, we must change at our own frequency and vibration rate.   Also that we cannot fly before we are truly formed.   All of these thoughts run through my head and Tai smiles at me.

"One thing that you have not considered".   My thoughts cease and I stop to listen to the wisdom from this beloved teacher.   "You are already the butterfly, however, within the human personality is the "fear" that you will fail, that you do not deserve to either be free to fly, or to recognise that you are already what you need to be.   Many times you try to justify that you cannot, should not, what if.  That you are selfish, egotistical, self absorbed, if you believe in your own beauty inside.  Programmed at times by both your nature and your society, you look at beauty at a surface level in others, forgetting that in the Essence of Self, you already have within you all the beauty you could possibly want.   All you do is deny yourself the truth of you, the Essence of you, that longs to be free to fly, to soar and to show the world who you truly are.

Ever consumed by what you "think" you should be, you have forgotten to simply BE.   Pressured by your own brain, your own thinking, a perception quantified by comparisons, you believe there is an impossible bench mark, or milestone that you will reach that enables you to suddenly say this is ME.   However, you already are.  What you seek is not governed by outside experiences or understanding, that is a perception only.   What you truly seek to set your heart free, is a loving acceptance of you and in allowing yourself to see you as all you are, so you enable others also to see themselves".

"I think that's harder to do, than what you say Tai, for all of us."   "No" he says gently "You ASSUME it is, do not forget you already ARE.  Your own learning in the Essence of Self is to accept that.  That for every light, there is an element of dark, and that you continually trap yourself by your own thinking by believing you need to deal with that dark, in moving forward and accepting it as a part of you.  A necessary part, then you understand the balance of what you need for your growth.    In accepting the balance of you is already in place, then you simply stop "pecking" at yourself with unreasonable expectations".   His eyes gleam.

I think for a moment.  "I have been given the Gift of seeing the Essence of other people, and they are so very, very beautiful inside, I just need to see that in me? or we need to see that in ourselves?"   He shakes his head, "You have been given NO gift, this is who you are, all of you.  Every single person can "see" the beauty of another, until you understand and see the beauty of YOURSELF, then you remain "blinded" to the beauty of others, but the ability to see that is inherently already in everyone".

I nod, I so get that.  We are at this time, the cocoon.  The Universal Energies are shifting, warming, changing and encouraging us to transform beautifully, wonderfully, amazingly.  However, we hold inside ourselves the "key" to unlock our own cocoons and move freely as whom we truly are.   Fear holds us back, fear of unknown, but worse a fear to see ourselves as we truly are.  So very, very gifted, and so very, very beautiful.  Just for a moment, look to the Essence of Self and with no criticism, see you, shining, ethereal in your beauty and know simply, it is TIME.