A Butterfly That Thought It Was Still A Caterpillar: A Transformation Story

This transformation story tells the story of a butterfly that thought it was still a caterpillar. It talks about transformation and about not accepting it. The truth is that we sometimes have more power than we are willing to see, and we waste energy fighting against change, with our eyes fixed on the past, trying to be who we are no longer.

Some time ago, a small caterpillar was born. With some difficulty it crawled on the ground from one place to another. Until one day, tired of crawling, he decided to climb a tree. But not just any tree, it chose to climb a tree with a thick trunk and dew leaves. A tree it had been playing under for many years.

The caterpillar climbed and climbed, but then it slipped, fell and could not move forward. But it kept working and step by step, little by little, it managed to climb.

It came to a branch it could see the whole valley from. The view was amazing. It could see other animals, the blue sky with white cotton clouds, and on the horizon a large sea painted with an intense blue color. From that branch the caterpillar breathed calmly.

It sat there observing the world around it, feeling that life was too beautiful not to transform with it. While the caterpillar was tired and at the same time grateful for life as a caterpillar, it knew that the time had come to become something else.

A story about transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly

The caterpillar fell asleep, felt a great calm and thought about what its fate was to be something more than a simple caterpillar. It slept and slept, and a pupa grew around it, a shell that kept the peace there long enough to become another being.

When it woke up, it felt trapped in a heavy shell that would not let it move. It felt that something strange had grown on its back. With effort it touched what looked like big blue wings, and the shell burst.

The caterpillar was no longer a caterpillar, it was a blue butterfly. However, the larva had been a larva for so long that it did not realize that it was no longer a larva.

The blue butterfly crawled down the tree with its small legs, even though it now had wings. It carried the weight of the large blue wings, a weight that used its strength.

The blue butterfly moved with its legs as it had always done, thinking it was a caterpillar and continued to live as if it were one. But his wings did not allow him to move on the ground with as much agility as before.

The weight of the wings

The butterfly, which thought it was still a caterpillar, did not understand why life had become so difficult. Tired of carrying the weight of the wings, he decided to return to the branch where it had transformed. This time it tried to climb the tree, it was impossible to move forward.

A gust of wind or another small unexpected event pushed it backwards. The butterfly, which thought it was a caterpillar, stood still and looked up at the branch that seemed so far away. Then it began to cry, desperate.

After hearing its cry, a beautiful, white butterfly approached. The white butterfly sat on a flower and looked at the blue butterfly for a while, without saying anything. When the blue butterfly’s cry calmed down, the white butterfly said:

“What happened?”
“I can not climb that branch. Before, even though it was difficult, I managed it. ”
“But if you can not climb that branch… maybe you can fly to it.”

The blue butterfly, which thought it was still a caterpillar,  looked strangely at the white butterfly and looked at itself and its large, heavy wings. Just like the day it came out of the nipple, it moved them hard and opened them.

They were so large and beautiful, a blue color so intense that the transformed larva became frightened and quickly closed them again.

“You wear out your legs by not using your wings,” said the white butterfly, flying as he opened his wise wings and flew away with elegance.

To fly

The blue butterfly watched, amazed at every movement of the white butterfly, and reflected on the words of the white butterfly. At that moment , it began to understand that it was no longer a caterpillar, that perhaps the large wings could be useful.

The blue butterfly opened them again, and this time it kept them open. It closed its eyes and felt the wind caress them. It felt that these wings were now part of it and accepted that it was no longer a larva, so it could not continue to live as such, crawling on the ground.

Then it opened its wings wider and wider, and became each time more butterfly and smaller larva. It observed the beautiful, almost magical blue color on its wings. Soon it realized that it was flying, it was moving slowly towards the branch.

Flying was much easier than dragging on the legs, although it still had to perfect its technique. It discovered that its fear of flying had not made him accept who he really was, a caterpillar turned into a blue butterfly.

This story of transformation is the story of a butterfly that thought it was still a caterpillar. It is the story of the beautiful blue butterfly, with strong wings, able to fly against the current, in the middle of storms and strong winds.

The blue butterfly had large, beautiful, blue wings. A blue of many different shades, from the color of the brightest sky to the angriest sea. But it did not even know it.

The lesson from the story of the transformation of the blue butterfly

The change from caterpillar to butterfly is one of the most commonly used metaphors to talk about resilience. Butterflies are a symbol of transformation, and at the same time a symbol of fragility and greatness. Therefore, a butterfly is a natural protagonist in a transformation story.

This narrative of transformation reminds us that we live in a changing, dynamic world of constant evolution, and that we are part of it. But sometimes, even though we have transformed and have the strength to change, we do not accept it for one reason or another: maybe fear, shame, guilt…

Here, a beautiful, strong, blue butterfly does not accept that it is no longer a larva, and can therefore not live as if it were. Part of it wanted to change, but another part feared change and tried to cling to the past and continue living as before it had changed.

It took some time to accept and discover what the wings were for, and how it could live from then on. For this it needed some help. Sometimes others see our strengths more clearly than we do.