Monarch Pass

It was nearing the end of December and I'd been looking to live in the mountains for weeks, with no success.  I was convinced that finding a winter sublet in the Colorado Rockies was a more fated experience than the meeting of soulmates.  Yet, a little part of me trusted that I hadn't found a place for a reason, wondering if maybe I was being guided to live somewhere more specific.  I remembered that one of my past clients, had been living in Crested Butte, the capital of wildflowers!  I sent him a text, to which he responded within minutes- like actual cybersphere magic... It just so happened that he was looking to sublet his own apartment for the winter, an insulated place in which I’d be able to live and write for a month or so. 🙌 

To get to Crested Butte I had to drive over Monarch Pass, a notoriously icy mountain pass during wintery conditions.  I waited a few extra days to drive over the pass due to weather, reflecting how interesting it was how this entire journey was made up unique lessons that I really seemed to need.  Teaching me to trust the timing and the cycle of taking action and surrendering to the flow within all things -- to focus less on reaching the destination, and instead, to embrace the spaces between places.  Recognizing that the caterpillar does not become a monarch butterfly overnight, but rather through a process of transformation, each stage defining the next.

Before arriving in Crested Butte, I decided that regardless of whether or not I ever actually found the creative clarity I'd been seeking- my pilgrimage West had shown me the humbling, yet essential process within every journey to create anything. (Part 3 of 4)

"It's only when caterpillarness is done that one becomes a butterfly.  That again is part of this paradox.  You cannot rip away caterpillarness.  The whole trip occurs in an unfolding process of which we have no control."

- Ram Dass