A Butterfly That Thought It Was Still A Caterpillar: A Story Of Transformation

This story is about a butterfly that thought it was still a caterpillar. It’s about transformation and not accepting it. The truth is that sometimes we have more power than we are willing to realize, and we waste energy resisting change, with our eyes fixed on the past. We try to be someone we no longer are.

A little while ago a small caterpillar was born. With some difficulty he crawled on the ground from one place to another. Until one day, tired of crawling, he decided to climb a tree.  Not just any tree, he chose to climb a tree with a large trunk and moist leaves. A tree he had played under for years.

The caterpillar climbed up, but then it slipped, fell and fell and got no further. But he kept trying and step by step, little by little he managed to climb up.

He reached a branch from which he could see the whole valley. The view was beautiful. He could see other animals, the blue sky with white woolly clouds and on the horizon a great sea that was intensely blue. From there, the caterpillar exhaled calmly.

He sat there, observing the world around him and feeling that life was too beautiful not to transform with. Although the caterpillar was tired and at the same time grateful for his life as a caterpillar, he knew the time had come to become something else.

A story about a transformation from caterpillar to butterfly

The caterpillar fell asleep, felt a great peace and thought about how his fate should be more than being a simple caterpillar. He slept and slept, causing a cocoon to grow around him, a shell that protected him long enough for him to become another creature.

When he awoke, he felt trapped in a heavy shell that prevented him from moving. He felt something strange on his back. With difficulty he moved what looked like great blue wings and broke the cocoon.

The caterpillar was no longer a caterpillar, but a blue butterfly. However, the caterpillar had been a caterpillar for so long that it did not realize that it was no longer a caterpillar.

The blue butterfly crawled out of the tree with its legs, even though it now had wings. He bore the weight of those great blue wings, a weight that cost him strength.

The blue butterfly moved with its legs as always, believing it to be a caterpillar and to continue to live as a caterpillar. But his wings wouldn’t allow him to move on the ground with such agility.

The weight of the wings

The butterfly that still saw itself as a caterpillar couldn’t understand why its life had become so difficult. Tired of bearing the weight of his wings, he decided to return to the branch where he had been transformed. This time, however, it was impossible to climb the tree.

A gust of wind or some other small unexpected event caused him to fall. The butterfly that thought it was still a caterpillar stood still and looked at that branch that seemed so far away. Then he began to cry desperately.

After hearing his howl, a beautiful, wise white butterfly came to him. The white butterfly sat on a flower and looked at the blue butterfly for a moment without saying anything. When the blue butterfly stopped crying, the white butterfly said:

“What happened?”
“I can’t climb that branch. At first it was difficult, but I could do it,” said the blue butterfly.
And the white butterfly said, “But if you can’t climb that branch…maybe you can fly to it.”

The blue butterfly, thinking it was still a caterpillar, looked curiously at the white butterfly, then looked at itself and its large, heavy wings. Just like the day he came out of his cocoon, he moved them and opened them.

They were so big and beautiful, a shade of blue so intense that the transformed caterpillar was frightened and quickly closed them again.

“You are overloading your legs by not using your wings,” said the white butterfly, taking off, opening its wise wings and flying away with elegance.

To take off

The blue butterfly watched and marveled at the white butterfly’s every move as he thought about what he had said. It was then that he began to understand that he was no longer a caterpillar, that those heavy wings might be useful.

The blue butterfly opened them again, this time holding them open. He closed his eyes and felt the wind caress. He felt that those wings were part of him now and accepted that he was no longer a caterpillar, so it could no longer live as such and crawl on the ground.

Then he opened his wings further and further, more and more butterfly and less caterpillar. He observed the beautiful, almost magical blue of his wings. Soon he realized he was flying, and slowly moved toward the branch.

Flying was much easier than dragging his legs, though he still had to perfect his technique. He found that his fear of flying had not allowed him to accept who he really was, a caterpillar transformed into a blue butterfly.

This story of transformation is the story of a butterfly that thought it was still a caterpillar. It is the story of a beautiful blue butterfly, with strong wings, able to fly against the current, in the midst of storms and strong winds.

The blue butterfly had big, beautiful blue wings. A blue that consisted of many different shades, from the color of the lightest sky to the most angry sea. But he didn’t even know this.

The lesson of the transformation of the blue butterfly

The transformation from caterpillar to butterfly is one of the most commonly used metaphors to talk about resilience. Butterflies are a symbol of transformation and at the same time a symbol of fragility and magnificence. Therefore, a butterfly is a natural protagonist of a transformation story.

This story of transformation reminds us that we live in a changing, dynamic world of constant evolution and that we are part of it. But sometimes, even though we have been transformed and have the power to change, we don’t accept it for whatever reason: perhaps out of fear, shame, guilt…

A beautiful, strong, blue butterfly here does not accept that it is no longer a caterpillar, and therefore cannot live as it did before. Part of him wanted to change, but another part was afraid of change and tried to cling to his past and continue to live the way he did before he changed.

It took some time to accept and discover what the wings were for and how he could live from then on. That needed help. Sometimes others see our strengths more clearly than we do.