The caterpillar

The caterpillar sat on twig looking down at the ground. He was afraid of heights.  Just plain terrified of them.  No, he wasn’t terrified of heights. He was terrified of falling from heights.  He gripped the stick as tightly has a caterpillar with no arms and legs could.

But there was one thing he feared more than heights — and that was change.  He hung on to his old existence even tighter than he did to his twig.  There was no good in change as far as he was concerned.  None. Nada. He loved his life just as it was.  The caterpillar was committed to staying in his comfort zone. His silo. And to continue to live his happy life.  He would never take a leap both literally or figuratively.

The caterpillar fought change with all his might, but he soon found out that it was as fruitless as fighting the tide.  Other caterpillars soon began to disappear; his anxiety levels shot to the top of the tree. The caterpillar doctor prescribed caterpillar medicine for him. He was terrified.

But no matter how hard he fought it, change did come. The caterpillar tried to run — but caterpillars can’t run. Change caught and overwhelmed him.  He was trapped in some kind of cocoon.  His former life that he had loved so dearly ended abruptly. Day after day he was suspended in darkness.  A month passed but it felt like a year.  He screamed in the silence. He was even more terrified

One day, he opened his eye and noticed a crack in the darkness. A single beam of light lit and warmed his face.  The catapiller pushed at the crack with his nose.  The cocoon broke open a little more.  He kept pushing until he could stick his head out. The bright sunshine blinded him to the change that surrounded him.  He emerged and fell out onto the branch.

Everyone on the branch stared at him. He looked at them and said, “What?!?” Then he felt them.  His wings.  He instinctively stretched them.  And his legs. He stretched them.  He looked down from the branch. He was no longer afraid of heights. He began to move his wings. Slowly at first. And then faster.  Suddenly, the caterpillar lifted off the branch and flew high into the sky.

He circled around the tree and then looked back at his old cocoon.  He laughed.  The very change that he had fought and feared had now allowed him to soar to greater heights.  The former caterpillar (now Monarch Butterfly) flew away from his old life into a new, amazing world. He found the good in change after all.