The allusions I make the most:
1. Comparing 5 stages of grief and recovery to %26quot;seasons%26quot;
2. Comparing growing pains and spiritual change to
a. the pain and fear of a baby safe in the womb being pushed out into an unknown world, but finding joy afterwards that far exceeds the labor
b. the emergence of a butterfly from a cocoon, and how the wings must dry before flying off freely
3. Kahlil Gibran's quote %26quot;Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding%26quot;
4. Anything that shows that change in a relationship takes both people
a. I often compare refusal to change to a %26quot;Chinese finger trap%26quot; where the more both people repel each other, they stay stuck, but if they both push to meet in the middle, they free themselves up
b. A scale of justice, or an equation in math, that any change on one side is balanced by change on the other side. So that change happens mutually, and is not a matter of one side controlling the other.
