Butterfly
Snippet from Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
“How does one become a butterfly?” she asked pensively.
“You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar”.
“You mean to die?” asked Yellow, remembering the three who fell out of the sky.
“Yes and No,” he answered.
“What looks like you will die but what’s really you will still live. Life is changed, not taken away. Isn’t that different from those who die without ever becoming butterflies?”
“And if I decide to become a butterfly,” said Yellow hesitantly. “What do I do?”
“Watch me. I’m making a cocoon.
“It looks like I’m hiding, I know, but a cocoon is no escape.
“It’s an in-between house where the change takes place.
“It’s a big step since you can never return to caterpillar life.
“During the change, it will seem to you or to anyone who might peek that nothing is happening – but the butterfly is already becoming.
“It just takes time!”
“And there’s something else!
“Once you are a butterfly, you can really love -the kind of love that makes new life.
It’s better than all the hugging caterpillars can do.”
This is a book that I cherish and read aloud to my kids often. It has so many parallels to living, loving and learning.
(Cocoon photo credit)
(Butterfly photo credit)
