A long time ago when Mother Nature was first organizing everything and the details of life hadn’t been completely worked out, she decided to hold a meeting with all the spirits to get their input on how the Earth should look and what their final forms should be. After all, she was quite fair and she just wanted everyone to be happy. So she set up a huge tent and decided to have a picnic. All of the spirits came, of course, because they were very eager to get down to their final form of manifestation.
But, oh, what a mess it all turned out to be! First, the larger and heavier spirits pushed
the smaller and lighter spirits out of the way.
Then the louder spirits drowned out the timid spirits with all their shouting. And the quicker spirits danced circles around
the slower spirits, which made them feel claustrophobic. There was an awful lot of grumbling, shouting,
and general rudeness going on.
Finally, Mother Nature decided she had heard enough of their
guff, and she silenced them all with a terrifying bolt of lightning. At last when they were quiet, she showed them
all the many forms of manifestation that she had come up with, but no sooner
had she shown them, when the arguments broke out again. She regretted holding the meeting and wanted
it to end, so she told them all to pick their final form and go as quickly as
possible before she lost her temper and trashed the whole idea of manifestation.
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| Caterpillar: the only shape-shifter left. |
Of course, the larger and louder and quicker spirits
snatched up many fine forms such as bears and eagles, crocodiles and snakes,
elephants and tigers, sharks and whales, scorpions and dragonflies. Eventually every form she had created had
been taken except for one, and that was the caterpillar. “Are there none of you who wish to be a
caterpillar?” she asked. But all the
spirits laughed at this simple and slow form, which they called “ugly.” So they all left in a huff with Mother Nature
sighing relief at their departure. Then
they descended to the Earth in their final and beautiful forms.
All but one small group of spirits, that is. These spirits were so tiny, so quiet, and so
slow that she almost missed them. In a
tiny voice, they asked if they might have the form of the caterpillar. Mother Nature looked at them with kindness
and love and saw how good and sweet they were, and she told them they could have the
form of the caterpillar but with one change.
They did not argue with her but instead thanked her profusely for her
kindness. This touched her heart very deeply since they were the only spirits
who had thanked her.
So she gave them the form of the caterpillar, and as they
took it on and descended to their final place on the Earth, she sprinkled just
a little bit of magic dust on them in passing.
Lo and behold, as they grew into their “ugly” selves, they fell into a
deep sleep, and when they emerged, they were truly stunning and beautiful. And with their delicate butterfly wings, they flew amongst
their other manifested brethren, who were now comfortable in their final forms
as well. The other manifested spirits
just gaped in wonder and awe at their transformation, secretly hoping that they
would also transform.
But that did not happen, as everyone knows, and as everyone
also knows, it is the caterpillar alone that maintains its spiritual ability to
shape-shift, leaving behind temporary mortal form to soar into the heavens.
