The Butterfly
Thursday, January 17th, 2008 8:44 PM
Have you ever wondered why life seems to be soooooooo very hard sometimes? Why we go through hardships and traumas? Why each day can seem to be full of discovery and supposed unnecessary trials and tribulations?
I used to many, many centuries ago ,until one day I actually opened my eyes and started to see. Really see!
The best way that I can explain the reasons for our sorrows a little more simply is to outline the simple life of a butterfly.
One day I became mesmerised by the obvious hardships that one particular butterfly was enduring, just in her efforts to lay her very precious cargo of eggs on one particular tree. It was a very blustery day and her efforts were full of danger and difficulty. Her delicate wings just did not seem to be strong enough to combat the gusty winds that buffeted her from one direction to the next. However, she did not give up. Backwards and forwards she flew with such determination, and lay those precious eggs, she did!
Three to be exact! Now fully intrigued, I happily watched the process of life unfolding in front of my eyes. From those tiny eggs, three very ordinary caterpillars emerged, intent only upon feeding themselves on the obviously succulent leaves that they had found themselves upon. Over a period of a week or so, these lowly caterpillars gorged themselves until they were finally ready to take the next step.
The next time that I visited my little friends, they had progressed further in their lives and were now safely esconced within their new home, their chrysalis.
How on earth could those large, fat, juicy caterpillars have squeezed themselves into this tiny cocoon? With evidently much effort and determination, just like their mother, they have moved towards their next destination. This occurence was what they were destined, right from the very beginning, to be.
Now, within their chrysalis, the metamorphosis had begun. No longer the caterpillar and not quite the butterfly. What were they?
With this in mind, ask yourself this. When times are hard and we don't believe that we can make the transitition from survival into life, where are we and what are we? Do we have choices? Do have the strength and the endurance? Only you can truly answer those questions for yourself, but understand this. The choices that we make, on a daily basis, can very literally take us from being ordinary and supposedly unimportant, living our existences amongst many other ordinary and unimportant beings, into something very special and extraordinary. It is well within our power!
When the time was right, those caterpillars continued to endure further frustrations, determination and persistence, in their efforts to finally escape their boundaries, and metamorphosize into a creature that was stunningly beautiful and who could fly. It became those endurances that specifically moulded their individual beauty and potential. Without persistence and determination, they wouldn't be capable of flying, and that they most definitely did.
So when situations develop in your mundane and frustrating existence, know that these are the opportunities that you, yourself, have created in which to metamorphosize into that which you were born to be.
Conditions, traumas, frustrations and hardships are the catalysts that mould and cultivate us to be extraordinary.
In reality, how could you possibly know that you are extraordinary, strong and determined unless you do endure those traumas, frustrations and hardships.
You must start off as a caterpillar, filling yourself with the nourishment of the world that surrounds you, before you can make the journey of cloistering yourself in your own cocoon to develop into the stunning butterfly that is your decision and your destiny.
That becomes the difference between survival and existence, and experiencing a truly extraordinary and magnificent LIFE!
