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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 ...
7 May 2013 at 23:28
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.
8 May 2013 at 06:30
The Cranky said…
To finish with one state is to begin another....
8 May 2013 at 07:16
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!
8 May 2013 at 09:21
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.
8 May 2013 at 17:42
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!
9 May 2013 at 08:43
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