29/03/2026
There were caterpillars not long ago, quietly devouring the leaves of a native vine (Hardenbergia violacea) that climbs beside the studio doors. I watched them for days ~ small, persistent lives woven into the edges of this familiar space. Then, almost suddenly, they were gone. In their place, delicate golden chrysalis forms appeared, suspended from the very vine that had nourished them.
It stayed with me.
Nature has always felt like a mirror, a place for context and a guide into the inner unfolding. Sometimes initiating, sometimes being met by what is chosen for us, and offering reflections we may not be ready to see, yet deeply need.
These chrysalis forms feel like a living symbol of this moment in my life.
A stage of metamorphosis.
A space where what once was begins to dissolve. Where every cell, every structure softens and decomposes into something unrecognisable. There is no certainty here, only a quiet, unseen process taking place in the dark.
And right beside them stand the doors of the Shala.
For 23 years, I have been privileged to share my craft and this space has held community, practice, connection. It has been a place of offering, of gathering, of becoming. And now, like the caterpillar entering the chrysalis, this space too will be closing its doors.
I feel myself within this process.
There is grief here. There is unknowing. There is a depth that feels both tender and encumbering, like being held in a darkness where form is no longer tangible. A place where identity, purpose, and familiarity begin to dissolve.
And yet… this too is nature.
This too is the intelligence of transformation.
The chrysalis does not rush. It does not resist the undoing of what it has been. It allows the decomposition, trusting something beyond what it can perceive.
I find myself here ~ within this threshold. Between what has been and what is not yet formed.
Selina Stewart 💛