Butterfly Lesson
Are you unhappy with the way you look? Do you hate your knobby knees, your short legs, your freckles and your braces? Did you know you won’t look the same way when you are grown? It’s true; you will go through many changes during your life, just like a butterfly.
Butterflies are the loveliest creatures on earth. Who can keep from smiling as they watch a butterfly flit from flower to flower, showing off their brilliant gossamer wings? But, did you know that a butterfly doesn’t spend its whole life being beautiful. A butterfly goes through many changes before it emerges in all its glorious splendor.
A butterfly starts as a tiny egg, a rather plain egg at that, attached to a plant. After the egg hatches into a caterpillar, it spends its time eating and shedding its outer skin many times, as it grows. What the caterpillar eats now will nourish it when it becomes an adult, just as what you learn in school will help you when you become an adult.
The caterpillar spins a cocoon and becomes a chrysalis in preparation of some big changes. It may seem very boring and as if nothing much is going on with the chrysalis, but big changes are happening inside just as big changes will happen in you as you approach puberty. You may not be able to see the changes, but they are happening as you go about your daily life.
The changes are so significant that when the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, it appears as a very different animal. Where the caterpillar had a fat striped body, no wings, short legs and antenna and tiny eyes, the butterfly has large colorful wings, long graceful legs and big eyes and believe it or not, the changes in you may be just as profound.
So, what do we learn from the butterfly? We learn that we won’t always look as we do now and being unhappy about it doesn’t help at all. Instead of worrying, the best thing we can do is to accept ourselves as we are and make good use of our time in each stage of life. Have fun, make friends, study hard, get plenty of exercise, eat a healthy diet, and don’t worry about how you look, because someday you too will be a beautiful butterfly.
