I like to draw a distinction between change and transformation. I define change as "moving from one state of being to another with the ability to return to the original state." Water has three different states -- liquid, gas, or solid. If you freeze water in its liquid state, it becomes solid. An ice cube at room temperature returns to its liquid state.
Transformation, on the other hand, is "moving from one state of being to a state of being at a higher order of complexity." A popular metaphor for the process of transformation is the butterfly. Once the caterpillar goes into its chrysalis, it cannot revert back to a caterpillar. And once it emerges as a butterfly, it cannot go back to either a chrysalis or a caterpillar. Once we have had a spiritual awakening, we can't go back to seeing the world in our old way.
The mystery of our current time is whether humanity is in the midst of transformation and a collective spiritual awakening, or whether we are experiencing a temporary state of change. The lesson of covid-19, the Black Lives Matter movement and the climate crisis is that we are all interconnected. "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matthew 25:40) Using another butterfly metaphor, drawing upon chaos theory of sensitive dependence on initial conditions, when a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, a tornado forms in Texas. Each of the crises we are experiencing started with small but cumulative actions.
We don't know how covid-19 started, but it changed the world. We have a better idea about the roots of Black Lives Matter and the history of racism, brutality and injustice. With George Floyd's murder, there is some collective awakening to the systemic racism non-whites have experienced for generations, along with a global willingness to protest in order to create new systems. When covid-19 caused travel to stop, we saw dramatic evidence of the decrease in pollution around the world. Now that so many of us have had the experience of Zoom meetings for family, education and business, there is a rethinking about how much travel we really need.
For three years I have been raising butterflies. I get to see the transformation process up close. We have a native plant garden with lots of milkweed and other plants to attract birds, bees and butterflies. I look for Monarch caterpillars on the milkweed and move them into butterfly cages where I feed them daily until they form a chrysalis. When they emerge, I set them free in the garden. If the caterpillars are left alone, without human intervention, only 10% survive. With human help, 85% survive. The message is that transformation of some kind will happen with or without us, but it is much more effective if we give it a helping hand. And even small things make a difference.
Will our awakenings be temporary change or permanent transformation? It's up to us.
Judi Neal, Ph.D. is the editor of the two-volume "Handbook of Personal and Organizational Transformation" and the organizer of international Transformation Summits. Email her at judi@edgewalkers.org.