The Leaf and The Flower

Gemstone

Here for the Journey

She sat there feeling fat and ugly and still she nibbled at the leaf. She nibbled and nibbled until it was there no more. She paused briefly and looked around her at the lovely garden bathed in the last of the warm August sunshine. Something flickered past her as she held the moment in time, something bright, something beautiful. It landed on a nearby flower and drank long and sweetly from its depths. She fixed her eyes longingly on the beautiful creature and felt more ugly and cumbersome than ever. She continued eating relentlessly as she knew she must.

Throughout the day she continued to eat, feeling ever more repulsive than she had before. She was a survivor though, unlike many of her kind who had been taken by the birds or had perished under the gardener’s boot. Those who were left ate obsessively from the remaining vegetation and moved ever upwards to that place of rest. Beyond that point she could not comprehend.

Towards evening, at that moment when the sun was cooling but its light still illuminated the sky, she felt an urge rising within her. It was like nothing she had ever known before, something ancient, something she could not control. She began to move away from the vegetation and upward, ever upward towards the guttering on the old shed. Once there she found herself spinning a thread from her body and covering herself with the fabric it weaved.

When her work was completed she was exhausted so she slept, a long sleep from which there would be no return. As she slept she dreamt about the lovely bright creature that had flickered past her on the leaf. She wished, oh how she wished that she could have a fraction of that beauty for herself but she felt fat and she felt ugly and was convinced that she would never be beautiful.

In its place of safety the chrysalis grew hard and as the long summer days grew shorter something began to happen within the shell. To the observant onlooker it would seem like a magic bean had suddenly come to life.

Within the shell she stirred, sleepily at first but then the urgency took over and she began to push her way out from her warm bed.

Something had changed. Something was very different. Nothing felt as it did before. As she emerged from the chrysalis she felt a wetness, but it was more than that. Her fat ugly body had gone. Now she had a delicate slim body and beautiful wings. As she lay in the sun with her wings spread out to dry she realised that she too was an elegant beauty.

On a bright September day a lovely bright butterfly sat on a flower and smiled encouragingly at the uninspired brown caterpillar eating away at a leaf and she knew that soon she too would achieve her goal.

© Gemstone September 2008
 
What a lovely story Gem. I have got a butterfly theme for my party for that very reason!
 
What a wonderful metaphor.
 
Thank you very much for reading my ramblings - much appreciated x
 
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