Be a Butterfly – Time for Metamorphosis
Be a Butterfly – Time for Metamorphosis
Butterfly is a tiny little creature to our naked eyes, yet a beautiful creation of God that can teach mankind so many things right from survival to surpass. This little creature has been an all-time favorite thing since my childhood. Butterfly is generally semiotic to a woman, with its beautiful color patterns, soft, and smooth texture. Butterfly has a big role in metaphysics too. I even now, stare at butterflies that sits on a bush to suck its delicious meal and I trace it until it moves from my eyesight.
When I just thought of writing a blog, as usual I started pondering on trending topics of technology and the terrific COVID-19. That is when I realized, how things around us change as we grow old. We forget to nurture the inner conscience, failing to which always makes us think in a complex manner. So, I said to myself, Hey you! Wait … please make it afresh, breathe in and breathe out. I said to myself again, write something about a thought provoking fact which is known to all but forgotten by many in this busy world that we live in. Yes, I am going to talk about the life cycle of a butterfly and how that tiny little creature teaches us how to live our life happily and fruitfully. It might sound very childish, I know. But wait, don’t stop because you ought not to be missing an important fact though.
The life cycle of a butterfly is a known science. It is in fact a metaphor to trace the human life. This little creature survives challenges to ultimately find its true beautiful self. Which is beautiful here, the larvae or the butterfly? If not for the larva, the so called beautiful butterfly wouldn’t have found its way to this earth. Each of us in life would have gone through challenging times, which would turned out to be beautiful butterflies for some and dead larva for some. Let us be optimistic and see only how to be a butterfly. Just a few steps and you will be there;
- Strive
- Stretch
- Seize
- Spread and
- Shine
I would like to relate these five stages with the series of changes taking place in the life cycle of a butterfly. (My thoughts and explorations are being discussed, perceptions may vary)
Strive To break-open the hardships
Stretch To grow stronger
Seize To not let-go the opportunities
Spread To portray your individualism
Shine To set an example
Strive to break-open the hardships
The first stage of a butterfly life cycle is laying of eggs. Caterpillars or Larvae comes out of the eggs and feeds on the egg shells from which it was born and later on the leaves to grow big.
Strive hard to move out and explore. Hardships are just the thin egg shells around us, but we see it as a hard element. Do you see it as thin or thick? Do you look at it from inside or outside? Choice is yours. If you find it thin, break it open and go out. Or if you find it thick, wait with patience for the right time. Both ways are great, all at the end making a right choice to come out is the major goal. Looking at troubles and hard times from inside will make a human feel insecure, whereas from outside the view will make him / her superior (Oh! it’s just a thin shell and I can break it easily).
No problem is big when looked at in a wider perspective, you ought to explore the opportunities and ways to break the ‘hardships’. One day you would realize that the so called ‘hardships’ have made you grow mentally, physically and psychologically strong.
Stretch to grow stronger
The second stage of a butterfly life cycle is to stretch and shed its skin, so that it can grow bigger and stronger.
Stretch to free yourself from the bondage (skin) of fear, anxiety and stress. There is something called the FAS scale (Fear, Anxiety and Stress) in medical terms which determines the state of mind (source from Google search engine).These are just emotions, which pushes oneself into situations which becomes a nightmare one day. Emotions if rightly handled, will become the navigators of your life which is like an ocean. Fear makes you realize your weakness, anxiety makes you realize your need for something and stress makes you realize your capacity to handle something.
It is all about our capability and strength, hence handle it rightly so as to shed the fear to strengthen your thoughts, shed the anxiety to better understand your need and shed the stress to make yourself able.
Seize to not let-go the opportunities
The third stage of a butterfly life cycle is to form a protective layer around itself, called the pupa or chrysalis.
Seize to develop a protective layer called confidence around yourself which gives you the courage to face any challenge and take up the opportunities that comes your way, no matter what. There are many at times, we fail to understand our capabilities and let-go the opportunities. Those opportunities would have been a game changer if you had considered. There is an adage, which goes like this “Opportunity once lost is lost forever”. For me opportunities are like the fortune cookies (a cookie with a strip of paper holding an inspiring quote) served at fancy restaurants, if you say no, it gets served at another table. And that fortune becomes a cherry on the cake for someone else. But when you opt to take it, you can either decide to go with it or choose another cookie, because the situation is in your control and you would rather not miss to see what that fortune was.
It is always easy to let-go the opportunities, but it is difficult multi fold to find one in the near future. You will have to strive hard and await opportunities for years together sometime and by then most of the years in your life would have been surpassed only with longings. Hence, do not let-go the opportunities without exploring the possibilities.
Spread to portray your individualism
The fourth stage of a butterfly life cycle is the adult butterfly. This is the final stage of a butterfly life cycle, where the little creature unleashes its beautiful colorful wings to fly high and high. “Aww!!! This stage is so beautiful!! – imagine a butterfly flying high at this moment and you will empathize the joy I felt when I wrote this”
Spread to unleash your beauty. All the stages of life that you would have crossed till now is an experience and there can’t be a better teacher than ‘Experience’. Beauty is not being beautiful by looks alone, it is about the individualism you hold, be it in terms of behavior, attitude, knowledge, kindness and courage. All of us are beautiful in our own way. To unleash this, you should first say to yourself, I am beautiful in my own way and I am unique, but ensure that your ways lie under the common rules of mankind and doesn’t go beyond that or hurt anyone.
It is all about how we portray our self to the world. You can’t please everyone and there is no compulsion to please men on earth. We have to live the way we like, bearing only one thing in mind, “Do not harm / hurt anyone with your action or words”. Simply unleash the colors (uniqueness) with the lessons learned from your own experience.
Shine to set an example
This stage, is the revolution again – back to stage one.
We all have an inspiration (someone / something) behind everything we do and it reflects in our thoughts, actions and works. We all would have looked up to someone as a mentor / guide at least once in our lifetime. I know many of you reading this blog, would have achieved all the stages mentioned above and knowingly or unknowingly would have become an inspiration to someone, you may not know. If you are one among them, then you are already there shining as an example. Now, you may have question here, how do I know if I have been an inspiration to someone? Here is the answer, if you have ever felt proud of yourself for doing something profoundly beautiful for which someone had appreciated / criticized, it means you have inspired them. I would say criticism is also an inspiration, because that someone who criticized you would have wondered how you ever did this. All at the end, it is the perspective that matters. So go ahead, tap your shoulders and say ‘I am an example’.
And the journey begins again from ‘Strive … Set’
One thing that wouldn’t fade is the thoughts that leave behind when we bid adieu to this earth, so let that thoughts be full of positivism and good energy. This is nothing but setting an example, the simplest way one can easily achieve.
Metamorphosis by name, it may sound quite loud. But it is the crux of that transformation of an insect. So it is high time, we awaken ourselves to the metamorphosis of our lives so as to sustain this competitive world with courage and will power because;
We are much stronger than that small insect.
We are one among the most beautiful creations of God, and we deserve a happy life. Let’s live for ourselves and not for others!!!