Morphing



Yesterday: 
Me and Dog and an orange tip butterfly meander the lanes. Dog's colours, called liver and white, make a blend and contrast pattern against blossoming hedges. Butterfly's colours, bright white, irradiated orange, dark brown body: like a concentrated version of Dog. Butterfly has traveled here from last summer, from being a globulous egg under a leaf somewhere, from being a caterpillar, from the magic soup of the chrysalis: this species, I recall, overwinters in pupae form. A whole winter, suspended, between states of being.

Today:
Orange tip butterfly hovers in my mind. I am sat in the garden, sun at my back, hair shadows flicking. The breeze is warmish, is fresh. Thoughts flux, not unusual. The way I think: a fixed thing is a finished thing: I do not want to be finished. But then I think: a whole life spent in a chrysalis state is not a whole life. 




Comments

Suze said…
I do not want to be finished ...
Bhavya N said…
Loved your thought. Every day, we should make progress rather than be a fixed product, always evolving, always shortening the distance between us and the Creator.
The Cranky said…
To finish with one state is to begin another....
Lisa Southard said…
For the butterfly of course this progress to winged adult is the beginning of its end: but the human psychological cycle need not end. Which should be obvious- but I discovered in myself the tendency to keep to the less formed state, to be full of potential rather than fulfilling potential. There should always be an element of the unformed, I think, but I need not avoid everything structural!
Stephanie said…
"...a whole life spent in a chrysalis state is not a whole life."

Mmm, I just love this. If you get a chance, do read "Reeling for the Empire," a short story by Karen Russell. In it, a chrysalis is a means of rebellion and escape. It's the most intense story about morphing I've read, and fits in well with your theme here.
Lisa Southard said…
Thank you Stephanie, I shall look out for this- I have been feeling the urge to compile myself a summer reading list - this is a good call to action!

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