‘Don’t Kill The Butterfly’ And Other Important Stories Of Success

Butterflies are an evolutionary mystery. Like hummingbirds, their nature defies logic and scientific reasoning. Go look it up.

Metamorphosis (insects, not the novel) is a process of extreme transformation. Here, take a look at the definition:

Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal’s body structure through cell growth and differentiation.

“…conspicuous and relatively abrupt change…”

Have you wanted to change? I mean, have you ever wanted to just totally transform as a person? To see your character and your flaws shift in such a way that they no longer hold you back?

It’s difficult to explain why butterflies start out as one thing and end as something totally other. How are they hatched into this life as a distinct caterpillar only to, at some point, “conspicuously and abruptly” change?

Is it that the caterpillar is not a caterpillar at all? Or is it that the butterfly is born and the caterpillar has to die?

The caterpillar’s life  is all about preparation for the next and final phase of existence. It lives for the sole purpose to be transformed. At what point does the caterpillar stop being a caterpillar? At what point is this creature something totally in between? What is it then? A cater-fly? A butter-pillar?

The Process of Change Listed

1. So there’s feeding and growing
2. Focusing and attaching
3. Hanging on for dear life
4. Quieting and building
5. Nesting and incubating
6. Waiting
7. Waiting
8. Waiting and hoping you’re not eaten in the process
9. Transforming
10. Transforming
11. Looking alien
12. Looking beautiful but trapped
13. Looking beautiful while toiling
14. Emerging but not yet free
15. Hanging on by a thread
16. Breaking free
17. Free
18. Transformed totally
19. On a new journey with others who have gone through the same process

Don’t Kill The Butterfly

One time there was a man in the park sitting on a wooden bench.

He sat under a tree on this wooden bench.

Next to him was a branch from a tree. On that branch he saw a butterfly trying to squeeze its way out of the chrysalis.

He sat there and watched the butterfly struggle and struggle not really making any progress. He felt so much pity for that little butterfly and wanted to do whatever he could to help it fly free.

So in compassion, he took out his pocket knife and ever so delicately with surgical precision, helped release the butterfly from the constricting cocoon. He felt so much joy and waited in anticipation to watch the butterfly finally lift off.

He sat and patiently observed as the new creature rested on the branch, but still no flight. Slowly the butterfly started to shake and then inexplicably died.

The man was so disturbed by this he told a friend the story. His friend had actually heard of something like this happening before and informed him that butterflies require the struggle to build up energy to fly free. The nutrients that give enormous strength are released in the process of wrestling to freedom.

“Without the struggle”, his friend said, “the butterfly would never have enough strength and energy and power to make the long flight that it inevitably had to make.”

Without the struggle it had no strength, so it died.

No part of the process could be skipped. Apparently, even the most minute struggle was essential.

You and I are like that butterfly. Even though it seems compassionate for God to stop the struggle He knows it’s exactly what we need in order to gain the strength needed to live this life in freedom.

“It’s such a painful process”, you may say. And you’re right, it is. But revel in the fact that without it you could not transform. That struggle is transformation.

 

Have you ever gone through a struggle that left you a stronger, better person on the other side? Share in the comments below.