The Chicken or The Egg

The present was an egg

laid by the past

that had the future

inside its shell.

Zora Neale Hurston

Folklorist

1903 ~ 1960

Many references are made to the caterpillar's transition into a butterfly.  But what of the chicken fighting to crack the egg?  In THE BOOK OF AWAKENING, Mark Nepo says "Every crack is also an opening." Imagine being encased watching the space grow smaller and smaller.  The chicken cracks the shell by its own growth believing the world as it knows it is coming to an end.  All is falling away as the chick wiggles through the cracks.  The chicken does not die.  It begins a new life in a new world. 

In life, we cast off masks, break out of self-imposed shells, and struggle to regain safe footing.  Transitions are never easy, but new beginnings make the process worthwhile.  While growing up, we gather experiences and learn lessons.  There comes a time to let incidents of the past go, while maintaining the wisdom of the lesson.  In the present, we prepare for what will best suit us in the future.  Life may require sacrifice and loss, as we acquire strength and endurance. 

There was a time I used to feel that the future never really arrives, but with passing years, I find myself actually living in this so called future.  And if I do not relinquish enough of my past nor apply the wisdom learned in my present, I run the risk of creating cracks in this so called future.

Mark Nepo reflects that a crack is an opportunity for new life.  I wonder then, if when I get too many cracks in this so called future,  when I think I am suffocating and dying, will I simply squeeze through the cracks leaving the world as I know it, but actually fall into yet another new world?

I truly do not expect answers or explanations to my questions.  After all, they still seem to be working on what came first, the chicken or the egg!