The Essence of Creation Is Transformation (Nachama Greenwald)

Transformation is essential for the evolution and thriving of creation, which includes human beings. The process brings greater clarity, healing, and resilience into our lives and creative growth into the world. We see cycles of birth, death, and rebirth occurring in nature and on a global and personal level. Transformation is alchemical; it involves a shake-up of our usual routine and a plunge into groundlessness. Strong medicine is provided by life itself. There is poignant bittersweet beauty in impermanence and change, in loss and death, as well as in new growth. A distinction can be made between horizontal translation, a lateral shift in which our fundamental perception of the world remains the same, and vertical transformation where there is a radical shift in it. Rebirth follows death, always. Parts of ourselves that we’ve exiled can be transformed from shadow to light and become gifts we offer to the world. The caterpillar has to die to become a butterfly, but it resists the change. Personal examples of dying to identification are described. We are all hard-wired for survival at the level of ego, but at the level of soul we long to surrender to the holy process and love more profoundly, turn toward what is, and become more fully ourselves. Liminality means dissolution and refers to the betwixt and between place between death and rebirth when the way things have been is dying but what’s waiting to be born has not yet emerged. It’s a place of receptivity which is necessary for us to pay attention to ourselves in a deeper way. When external doors close, inner doors can open. Transformative moments are spontaneous when we’re transported into a place of awe and we experience our unitive nature. Nachama Greenwald is a physical therapist, editor, and musician who for seventeen years was a member of the Shri blues band which performed Western Baul music.