A tadpole is stuck in one little pond until it can grow and realize that there are rivers and lakes. Once that tadpole becomes a frog, it can find another place of its choosing to create a life of its own.
The tadpole is dependent to the small pond to which it was born. It must learn to live in this environment until it can grow independent of the pond’s giving constraints. If the tadpole remains in the pond it will perish as the pond will soon be too small to sustain such life. Growth is the only option. The tadpole grows into the beginnings of a frog. It grows some arms and legs, and leaves the enmeshment and known comfort of the pond. The foray into the expansive world begins with the frogs first independent hop.
While the new found independence is a beautiful thing, something more profound can happen if the frog shares its life and being with the world around it. In a frogs symbiotic and interdependent relationships, the new and fruitful generation of tadpoles begins, and the ecosystem is kept in check around it.
This is an artistic rendering of the dependence/co-dependence, independence and interdependence. But, it portrays the three as a cycle, while all three states of relationships can exist in a single person at any given time. Acknowledgement that there is a time and place for these parts is important to a full life. However, when we actively visit our independence we can truly appreciate the relationships that accept us for all that we are and find nourishment in those bonds, thus welcoming co-dependence and interdependence when it greets us.