CATERPILLARS, CHRYSALIS AND TRANSFORMATION
Top Left: A new caterpillar egg. Top Right: 5 of my foster caterpillars several days before forming their chrysalis. Bottom Left: A caterpillar in the middle of molting her last layer of skin to expose her chrysalis and next to her is a 2 day old chrysalis. Bottom Right: The brand new chrysalis from the caterpillar in the previous photo next to the same 2 day old chrysalis.
THE SUMMER OF MY GREAT UNDOING
This has been the summer of my great undoing. Letting go of the belief that I have to be doing all the time; accomplishing, striving and working hard.
This is my summer of doing less and playing more.
One of the ways I’ve been playing is fostering monarch caterpillars. I’m slightly (ok maybe a lot) obsessed with my little caterpillars. My friends and family are probably getting a bit tired of all my excited texts and pictures about their growth and progress.
I have several milkweed plants in my flower beds, which is where monarch butterflies lay there eggs. These plants often seed in my grass and grow into little plants between mowings.
After reading that monarch butterflies like to lay their eggs on new growth, I decided to check the little plants before the next mowing day to make sure there weren’t eggs on them.
I found 8 eggs!
Of course I had to save them, so I rushed inside to research how to foster those little eggs into beautiful butterflies.
And so began Lisa’s Caterpillar Rescue...
Thru the process I’ve learned a lot about caterpillars.
I’ve learned that caterpillars grow quickly once they hatch; they eat a lot; and they poop A LOT. Funny how that wasn't mentioned in The Very Hungry Caterpillar!
Another thing I’ve learned is that metamorphosis is f’ing hard work!
I sat and watched one my caterpillars struggle and work hard to do her last molt and expose her new chrysalis and it took 2 hours! Yes, I sat there and watched the entire process, completely fascinated!
I have a new appreciation for the beauty of butterflies after watching that caterpillar work for 2 hours to form and expose her beautiful green chrysalis.
As I watch my caterpillars make their way thru metamorphosis I’m also struck at how much it mirrors many of our transformations.
We’re going along in life, doing what we know to do, until we have a “knowing” deep inside; a knowing that we’re meant to do more with our life.
We know it will be hard to move thru the transformation but we must do it because the pain of not doing it is too much to bare; it's the only way we can become our beautiful butterfly selves.
But unlike the caterpillar, we get to choose whether or not we want to move into our own transformation. We have to decide to answer the “knowing” deep inside.
Can you imagine all the beauty that would be released into the world and the difference it would make if we all decided to take the first step in our own transformations?
Do you have a “knowing” deep inside your soul?
What’s it asking you to do?
All you have to do is take the first step…
If you’d like to watch the last few minutes of my caterpillars molt to reveal her chrysalis you can click this LINK
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but we rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve the beauty.”
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