As I move between the years, I often find that the one I am leaving had a theme. I am able to give it a title and sometimes in doing so I see the events of my year and their inherent lessons more clearly. I have had the Year of Endings and the Year of Beginnings. I have had the Year of the Swan and the Year of the Tiger.

2009 was, for me, the Year of the Chrysalis. After years and months of seeking answers for the riddles in my life; after years and months of reading and studying and learning new truths about life and the Universe and how it all works; after all this gathering of information and this eating and digesting, this grumpy, fat caterpillar spun a chrysalis this past year. For more than six months I have felt hidden in the darkness–not alone, really, and not lost. And yet, both alone and lost. For six months I have pondered all that I have been learning and have wondered if that which I desire and long for will ever manifest fully into my life. I am told that it is possible, but that it is up to me to bring it to being.

I have some hard work ahead of me. Work requiring courage and persistence. I must emerge from my chrysalis. I must find the courage to fly. I must become the jewel-winged Butterfly.