A hamster behind bars can see the wide open world and it longs to be part of it. It desires so much to be free from the isolation its cage enforces. Although it keeps attempting to escape, every time it manages to break free, I come to its cage and place it back inside. Its little heart beats and I sense its desperation. As it scratches my hands in fear, I cry uncontrollably with shame I feel as it scrambles for freedom. Its not that I want it to be unhappy, I know that it’s suffering. For so long now I’ve been a witness to the lonely creature. Its wide, beady eyes pop through the cold metal bars of its safe home. It pleads with me to listen to it, in the hope that it may be released. If I could just get in touch somehow and tell it that I care, it may not be so afraid and so lonely. I’ve seen what the hamster needs to give it life again. I know what it wants me to do, I know that all I have to do is open the door and keep it open, but I’m so afraid. I fear it won’t be seen and it will get hurt, so I’d rather keep it locked away than to have it trodden on. We need so much to communicate, if only I could tell it I understand and it could tell me a way to let it go.

“A world that lives by complexity and difference cannot escape uncertainty and it demands from individuals the capacity to “change form (metamorphosis) while still continuing to be the same person.”

“The Playing Self” A, Melluci

It’s amazing what I can learn if I can hang on to the reality of my dreams. I can take them apart one by one and realise that the force of my imagination can help me to focus on what is real. I seem to forget the events which enabled the hamster to free itself. All I can picture is the beautiful transformation it began to take when it opened up and begun to change into a butterfly. The hamster starts to disappear and I don’t know what happened to the cage. All I can see is the growing wings of the butterfly as it expressively states “I am”. Although the joy of this vision is immense, I’m in a different space. It’s not quite clear and it’s difficult to communicate. I woke up when the butterfly was still growing and I haven’t yet dreamt of what happens next. I’ve grown tired of imagining an end to my dream. What I want to focus on is now; sharing in the beauty of life with all the other butterflies in the world.