Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Inspired podcast, Monday Morning

Moments, the first edition of 2024 with John O'Leary.

Here we go.

Let's roll out with a little Richard Bach.

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

I love that idea. Turning the calendar from December to January

is supposed to usher in new hope, new goals, and new possibility. To absolve us of our holiday

indulgences and to pave the way for commitments to eat better, to work out a little bit more,

maybe to grow spiritually,

maybe to reconnect in a relationship.

All of this in the hopes of turning the page on a calendar and becoming a better version of ourselves in the year to come.

But in reality, we all know this ringing in the new year can sometimes feel deflating.

Instead of a focus on possibility, it can be a fixation on all that went wrong in the year that just ended.

Devastating global events, and there are many, divisive politics, they're on display every night.

Destructive weather, tune into the news failed promises fractured relationships personal

disappointments the list is long for many of us 2023 could not end soon enough and yet when we look

at history and cycles with the nature, we are reminded that adversity and hardship

frequently pours the foundation for coming success. Perhaps no illustration better reveals this

truth than the caterpillar. Yes, the little caterpillar. Not long after hatching, the caterpillar

must shed its hard outer shell. The very skin that kept it safe must be shed to make room for new growth then in one of the most stunning transformations a creepy crawly hard-shelled worm-like bug latches onto something firm hangs upside down shifts into a cocoon-like state as a Crescellus,

and spends the next couple weeks doing nothing. Doing nothing. Within this Crosceles state,

the old self dies to make space for a completely new way of life. Wings grow.

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