The transformation requires great effort on the part of the butterfly. It struggles so greatly to emerge from its chrysalis that its first few hours are spent recovering.
During the time immediately following its emergence, it is little more than easy prey for things that will eat it up. Butterflies that survive the period of vulnerability provide beauty for those that see them, and the seeds for growth for the new life that blossoms just because the butterfly was once there.
Butterflies don't flock like sheep. Butterflies are not territorial like wolves. Butterflies do not carry protective weight like snails. Butterflies do not soar like birds. Butterflies just fulfill their purpose as they clumsily flutter from project to project until they get eaten or die.
Butterflies do not destroy life. Butterflies bring life, but not by planting their own seeds wherever they go. Butterflies promote life and growth by picking something up in one place and leaving it behind in another place. Butterflies do not wait around to see the results of their efforts knowing more is needed for future generations.
Butterflies are not malevolent nor regretful. Butterflies are simply the complex creatures that evolve through identifiable stages of life, including a stage when they are regarded as a nuisance because of the damage that caterpillars cause. Butterflies have evolved tastes and needs. Butterflies no longer destroy their environment through massive consumption as the caterpillars from which they evolved once did, and which future generations of caterpillars will do again.
Butterflies feed from the flower that emerges from the plant that it once would destroy. Butterflies sip the nectar from the flower while picking up pollen, some of which will fall off at the next flower from which they sip nectar and pick up more pollen. Butterflies do not add to life by leaving behind their own seeds. Butterflies add to life by picking up and leaving behind what is needed for future generations of all species to survive.
Butterflies do not pretend to be butterflies. Butterflies act as butterflies. As we all should have learned from Kung Fu Panda, the secret is there is no secret. I do not want to literally pretend to be a butterfly. I want to figuratively act as a butterfly.
I want to seek knowledge to digest, leaving behind some of what I picked up before, and picking up some of what I will leave behind at my next stop for knowledge. I want to do that which I see as my purpose for future generations, and to not care how others think I might better use what time I have left. I want to do some of the things I've put off doing without regret or carrying unnecessary baggage.
There is no secret. If I want to figuratively be a butterfly, then I must make the decisions to do what a butterfly would do when given options. It is only in acting like my figurative butterfly that I will become my figurative butterfly.
* * * * *
Related articles:
Linear Thinking Versus Conceptual Thought
Self Image: What It Is and How to Change It
Be the Neighbor You Wish You Had
