What if 'The Donald' was Exactly What We Needed?

Emerging Stronger in a Time of Disruption

We are within hours of the astrological new year.

The first day of spring. The vernal equinox. That precise moment when the sun crosses the Earth’s equator and day and night stand in equal balance. This is a threshold. The end of winter. The beginning of something new.

There has been a pulling inward these past few months. A quieter pace. A turning away from noise. It feels like being inside of a cocoon. Dissolving. Reforming. Waiting for the right time to emerge.

The butterfly doesn’t dramatically drift out of the cocoon. It must push it’s way through the chrysalis opening. The effort strengthens the wings. If you were to “help” a butterfly by opening the chrysalis for it, it would likely never fly. The struggle is what makes flight possible.

In talking with colleagues and friends, many of us are going through this process. So much has been changing. Structurally. Timelines accelerating. Systems shifting. The external world hasn’t felt steady.

There is much that feels out of our control and doesn’t reflect what we might hope to see. Leadership that feels chaotic. Division that feels louder. Moments where it’s hard not to feel the weight of it all.

Yesterday, a friend said something that stopped me. “Thank God for Donald Trump.”

Not because she supports him. But because she sees what the presence of this man and his administration has revealed in her. And in that moment, I understood.

What if everything we are living is something we need to experience?

What if the discomfort, the disruption, the very things we would say we don’t want are part of a larger, deeper unfolding? What if they invite us to pay attention. To engage, rather than ignore. To become more aware of how systems function and how they affect real lives. To stand more firmly as allies, as advocates, as humans who choose connection over division. To look at our own shadow. Our own reactions. Our own patterns. To grow.

Growth rarely comes from comfort and transformation doesn’t happen in still water.

As we stand at the edge of this new cycle, that’s what this moment feels like to me. Not a clean, polished beginning. A real one. A beginning that comes after reflection. After sitting in the questions without rushing to answers.

For me, it feels like pushing my way out of my cocoon. Becoming stronger. Readying myself to fly as a more aligned version of who I ‘be.’

We may not be able to control what is unfolding around us. But we can choose how we show up within it. And that, more than anything, has the power to change what comes next.