Chameleons change their color mostly for social signaling, but sometimes it can be for temperature changes or for just straight up survival mode camo style. They have the ability to transform their outward appearance by changing the space between the guanine (pronounced gwah-neen) crystals and when that space is changed the wavelength of light reflected off the crystals changes the color of the skin. But, that’s not all. Some chameleons change color, notably males, while fighting over territory. How they do it is still a mystery. Scientists conjecture it could be hormones or neurons, or a mixture of both.
For Bacon Little, though he may not have guanine crystals, he does have a tween brain and as with all things tween brain related the colors for social signaling change as often as the weather does in Southeast Texas. And, well, there are those things called hormones, too. They fly up and down like the latest amusement park roller coaster and, us parents, all dream of a morning where we wake up and the coaster has paused, at least momentarily.
When kiddos reach the pre-pubescent years, their inner chameleon awakens. These are fun and exciting times for our tween chameleons and parents alike. They are also cra, cra, cra-zy for both.
“Water is a reflection of life,” noted Bacon Little. As they walked in synchronistic heart step from the night’s dinner adventure, Tea Love was quite impressed by his burgeoning wisdom. “I can’t believe he’s the big man on campus now…5th grade!” as she silently celebrated to herself and somehow holding a complete opposite feeling of sadness at how quickly it all passes. Then of course there was the sheer fear of the cra, cra about to hit the fan, well, at any moment.
Carl Jung, the great dark night of the soul psychologist, the father of the unconscious, and the purveyor of the underworld said that a sign of maturity is holding two opposing emotions at the same time. “I’ve graduated some level of life,” Tea Love pondered. She continued with great vigor, “I can simultaneously feel exuberant and deeply sad.” As Tea Love happily kissed her sweet one another good night kiss before he was too-cool-for-school, this simultaneous feeling confused her more than it balanced her chakra colors. Here’s the thing though, Tea Love noticed that the confusion wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. She was curious. “Perhaps we all have chameleon-like states of being,” Tea Love recited to herself while contriving up her next big thesis of life.
Just as she got really curious about the awakening of the chameleon, Bacon Little piped up about some hero project, saying with a halfway grin, “I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick you, mom.” So Tea Love even more curiously said, “Really?” Bacon Little looking sideways and so matter of factly added, “Yeah, of course, you inspire me.”
“I love these not so crazy moments,” Tea Love thought. It’s where social signals cross all lines and no signals are required but the attunement of the heart space. “It’s the attunement that will help me survive the rise of the chameleon,” declared Tea Love. In another dab dance moment later, she could barely pull Bacon Little away from his FaceTime, Musical.ly mediarama, and friend induced coma of another universe called “Which pix will be my stix today?” Another color change called for a deep recognition for all the roles we play. And, of course another deep breath to know that it will all be okay.
As Tea Love was hitting the pedal to the metal on their latest bike adventure, something she still loved to do with Bacon Little in between his color changes, to her surprise he nonchalantly stated, “So, this will be a bit awkward, but I realize that I have hair on my balls.”
Transformation doesn’t happen when we tell it to appear. It doesn’t work like that. We have to spend a lot of time working on a lot of different stuff and that stuff we work on becomes the foundation for transformation to just show up without a specific time invite. We have the option to be aware or not aware. One of those options will help us seize the opportunity.
“This is a defining moment,” Tea Love quietly said to herself. She continued this internal dialogue in lightening bolt speed, “It’s like I’m his best friend and he’s opening up to me about balls, hair, puberty, and all those weird change of life moments we face in our tween years.” The conversation was completely unexpected. There was no invitation for spiritual transformation to occur on this day and at this time. It just happened. The light went off in Tea Love’s heart, “Carpe Diem mama bear, with a twist of awesomesauce flair!”
I suppose the chameleon awakens in us all as we transition from our young school years to our tween/teen years and it doesn’t stop. We change emotional color as we fight over our territory whether it is territory at home or with a friend and, depending on the context, our social signals change as we walk in different shoes and through different doors. At the end of the day, there’s just one “us”, but somehow in that day, we danced with different versions of ourselves whether we felt it was a moment of survival or thriving in a big territory win of a good grade, a great connection in friendship, or meeting desired expectations that all gleefully looked at in unison signaling in their own way for more of the same.
“There’s a part of the chameleon that awakens,” Tea Love pondered, “that doesn’t change color, it just is.” Right before Bacon Little put his hand on Tea Love’s lower back to goose her from behind, she said to herself, “that just is-ness, IS beautiful.” Laughter reverberated through the entire park and she almost fell to the ground. They continued on their bikes into the red, yellow, orange, blue, pink, and purple watercolor sunset sky.
Bacon Little, still laughing from the surprise rascal goosing that he gave Tea Love, identified with the sparkle in his heart just enough that the just is-ness dropped right into his hands in the form of a little heart mudra. “I’m blowing you a little love!” Bacon Little said while smiling right along with the golden hour glow. “I caught it,” Tea Love sang and they played a little ping-pong love game.
“The chameleon awakens in us all,” thought Tea Love. She continued in deep meditative thought, “He may be changing moods as often has the southeastern Texas weather, but I think we all kind of do that depending on the shoes we decide to put on for the day. But, his moods are growing in bigger swings for the first time in his life and this marks a bit of the great chameleon awakening. And, yet, the true chameleon is the one that is still there despite the color changes. It’s the just is-ness without the fancy flair or territory fights. It’s that place that if you dare show to the world, the world will reflect back to you to say how real you are.”
As they rode off into the last moments of the golden hour sunset, Tea Love held on to her heart mudra to reflect back to Bacon Little just how real in love their just is-ness pedals in unison. As they made eye contact at the mystical nature of their encounter, Tea Love struck her peace lenses pose, “We’re going to light it up like it’s dynamite!”
Om Shanti Om ~
