{"id":8802,"date":"2026-01-12T23:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=8802"},"modified":"2026-01-12T23:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:53:12","slug":"metamorphosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=8802","title":{"rendered":"Metamorphosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Smith53.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Smith53.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9609\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Smith53.jpg 800w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Smith53-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Smith53-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Smith53-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Smith53-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I am still learning this new life, and in many ways it still feels strange to me.  I&#8217;ve begun filling the space that loss created around me.  I can color the space around me however I want &#8212; <em>finally<\/em> &#8212; because now there is room.  What I&#8217;m discovering is as surprising to me as the caterpillar&#8217;s transformation: life on the other side of loss is not only livable but may be better, richer, more meaningful.  I am more of myself for having gone through this strange and painful transformation, like entering the darkness and coming out with wings.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Maggie Smith, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/keep_moving_smith.html\">Keep Moving<\/a><\/em>, p. 173<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Sunrise over lake, South Riding, Virginia, December 17, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am still learning this new life, and in many ways it still feels strange to me. I&#8217;ve begun filling the space that loss created around me. I can color the space around me however I want &#8212; finally &#8212; because now there is room. What I&#8217;m discovering is as surprising to me as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,21,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growth","category-healing","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8802"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9610,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802\/revisions\/9610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}