Transformation

Thanks to one of my assistants I had the opportunity to witness the transformation of egg to caterpillar to butterfly.  I felt like cheering as the newest caterpillar made his way to the top of the habitat and began his journey to complete change.  It reminded me of how Maria Montessori used this phenomena to explain the growth of a child from one plane of development to another.  She said that each plane was not a linear ascent but a complete and dramatic change in the child.  It can be easy in our daily life to forget this fact.  We see the children grow and change almost imperceptibly.  Yet, think of the child at age 3 and then again at age 6.  The child who could not hold a pencil can now write a story.  The child who could not walk across the room without bumping into every shelf now skips and processes.  The child who had trouble enunciating is now telling jokes--and they make sense!  What a joyful process we are privy to witnessing.  In the ordinary flow of life we get to see the miracle.