“How does one become a butterfly?” Pooh asked pensively.
“You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar,” Piglet replied. -A. A. Milne
“You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar,” Piglet replied. -A. A. Milne
There is so much wisdom in understanding that we must consider the cost of no longer being a caterpillar before we will be able to take flight and live fully.
We can easily dismiss this notion, thinking it is ridiculous that we would want to stay in a restricted, limited state.
Yet, our symptoms are often the adaptations we developed to survive as best we could – in situations in which we had no better alternatives.
And we have often grown so used to the perceived protection they provide, that we must acknowledge this before we become able to let them go.
Some of the most useful questions, we can ask are: What is good about living as a caterpillar? How does it seem to serve me? What am I afraid of – or what might I lose if I no longer live this way?
If we truly appreciate how living as a caterpillar has served us – it can allow us to appreciate the gift that the adaptation has been for us when we needed it.
It can also allow us to acknowledge if this benefit has expired and what once provided security is now just keeping us from enjoying the freedom of our wings.