All change begins with some sort of loss. To get what one wants, one must give up what is. “It’s the end of the world,” said the caterpillar. “It’s the beginning of the world,” said the butterfly. n order to be able to fully let go and embrace what change brings, the acceptance of the loss, of the end of the current, is vital.  We  need to let go of the past in order to accept change and adjust to life, We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.( Maya Angelou) The caterpillar must be let go before the butterfly can become. 

In our lives, the wilderness or neutral zone comes after a change has occurred and we have ended something and let go.  This is a place when the old and the new overlap.  For the butterfly, this is the pupa stage of its transformation. This is where a larva encapsulates itself into a shell-like structure that hangs from a twig or branch.  Inside the structure, the insect is rapidly changing; transforming.  It is in the wilderness of the change process that we, too, begin our transformation into “something new.”  It is here that new ideas, new discoveries, re-orientations, and creativity take center stage and help propel those undergoing the change toward something they might be able to accept; something that might make their life better.