not all caterpillars become butterflies

Not all caterpillars know about butterflies. Some have seen them, and understood them to be another species, and most haven't even ever seen one, so busy they are a-munching and a-mooching.

Some though have been told they are butterflies really. Occasionally by a butterfly that got noticed and stopped fluttering by to chat and lend a wing. Or by another caterpillar who heard it from someone else.

Or by a chrysalis who spoke from stillness. Not all caterpillars know about chrysalises either!

Some caterpillars who've seen what a butterfly is tried to grow wings, or tried jumping off things to fly. Few know they have to become a chrysalis first. And some believed a chrysalis to be a butterfly, never having seen the real thing, or maybe because a chrysalis told them so, because either the caterpillar or the chrysalis misunderstood.

Not all chrysalises know about butterflies either! But they know they're not caterpillars anymore for sure. They got the message of stillness, stop moving, stay still to pupate. It's a beautiful time of transformation gathering strength to grow wings to fly.

Not all chrysalises become butterflies, it's not a conclusion foregone. To finish the job the chrysalis has to love lightness and light and long to fly in the air. Some love the earth more or their hard outer shell, or waste energy boasting to caterpillars. Hardening their shells with love of darkness turning their cocoon into a prison and eventual coffin.

The wise ones stay still, trusting to nature, they know it's a transitional phase. The wings need clarity to harden, the shell needs honesty to break. It takes openess to open the wings and lightness to fly in the sky.