In my quest to enter as many writing contests as possible, I found a site to do just this – Fan Story. For $9.99 you can join the site and enter as many of there contests you want, at two entries per day!
I wrote a story for one of the contests this morning and would like to share the story with you. It’s titled The Caterpillar. Here goes:
The caterpillar. This little fellow, for all purposes, pushes the boundaries of nature. They are larval forms of moths and butterflies, for those of you that don’t know. They are by far the most destructive bad asses of the natural world. They can consume so much — leaves of various plants — that were one caterpillar to hit on a tea leaf farm, it would consume so much caffeine, by default, that it would not only go clinically insane but could hike Appalachia in a week. Okay, now, that may be an imaginative stretch, but you get the idea. These wooly buggers can take down a thatch of bushes as a team and cap off some honeysuckles for dessert with no problems.
Now, I’ve never been a caterpillar, though a couple times tripping on LSD, I may have thought I was. But as an oddity of nature (in my mind anyway), maybe it is that the caterpillar has a choice — cocoon up and become a beautiful butterfly or stay on the ground feeding like a gluttonous hog. I wrote a poem about such an event many years ago called Harvest. It goes like this:
In a life’s harvest,
A caterpillar becomes
A butterfly maybe
Of its own accord.
Dispelling tangible fear
And apathetic complacency,
It wins its freedom.
Maybe this is its legacy, or one it would want to leave behind for the next generation. Maybe the caterpillar, like many forms of life, not only has a plan imprinted in its brain by God, but also maybe the caterpillar intuits life through each chewing step by some simplistic brand of emotion. Maybe it knows it will fly one day. Maybe it has its own doubts and that keeps the caterpillar grounded. Maybe flight isn’t a given.
Could be that such a decision to be totally vulnerable is the risk the caterpillar takes to jump into his momentous flying self. One quote from an author calling herself simply The Hippie, a thought on caterpillars, shows this risk. The quote from her memoir titled Snowflake Obsidian: Memoir of a Cutter, “The caterpillar turns to liquid before turning into a butterfly. Liquid. Thus, washing away any speck of his caterpillar self as he lies completely vulnerable to his environment in his chrysalis shell. One good solid gust of wind and the caterpillar’s boned.”
I like this quote because it calls on a biblical idea relating to “unforeseen occurrence”, which is touched on in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon wrote “I returned to see under the sun that the swift do not have the race, nor the mighty ones the battle, nor do the wise also have the food, nor do the understanding ones also have the riches, nor do even those having knowledge have the favor. Because time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.” The idea that unforeseen occurrence happens lends to the fact that maybe not all are bound for greatness. Not all are meant to fly. I don’t think this means that some things are out of God’s hands, however. Another verse in the same book of Ecclesiastes says, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”.
I can only conclude this writing by saying this statement: whether you choose to always remain a caterpillar or choose to fly on butterfly wings, do what you want to do. Not out of fear or complacency, but out of love. The love to be, to journey, to live a full life! If your journey ever leaves the ground, make certain it’s because you wanted to fly.
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That’s the story. Thanks for letting me share and for taking time out of your hectic Saturday schedule to read this!
As always, take care and walk in the loving light.
