How Does One Become a Butterfly?

Her whole insides leapt.

"Butterfly-that word," she thought.

"Tell me, sir, what is a butterfly?"

"It's what you are meant to become.  

It flies with beautiful wings and joins the earth to heaven.

It drinks only nectar fromt he flowers and carries the seeds of love 

from one flower to another.

Without butterflies the world would soon have few flowers."

"It can't be true!" gasped [the caterpillar].

"How can I believe there's a butterfly inside you or me 

when all I see is a fuzzy worm?"

"How does one become a butterfly? she asked pensvely.

"You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."

"You mean to die?" asked [the caterpillar], remembering the three 

that fell out of the sky.

"Yes and No," he answered.

"What looks like you will die but what's really you will still live.

Life is changed, not taken away.  Isn't that different from those who 

die without ever becoming butterflies?" 

...

"It's a big step since you can never return to caterpillar life.

During the change, it will seem to you or to anyone who might peek that nothing is happening--but 

the butterfly is already becoming.

It just takes time!"

From Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus