You'll hear the call
And if I don't let you fly
I don't know you at all
So go on and roam
See all that you can
Born on to this earth
A curious soul
You and you alone
Can make you feel whole"
200 eggs… A butterfly lays about this number of eggs on the leaves or over the flowers .. About four days later the caterpillar appears.
He eats the shells of his own egg first. No waste. There's no disliking the egg hatch and its shell. Then it begins to feed itself on the leaves where its mother left it. It grows apparently up to a 2000 times bigger size. But after a certain point it does not grow in length. It begins to shell itself.
Then that shell breaks up because the caterpillar does not fit into it anymore. He eats the shells that fall apart. Just like the shells of its egg. It is being reborn.
This situation repeats several times. Stuck again, burst again… Each one is like a bump in the road. But it's not about the bump, it's about experiencing it. Without them, the miracle in their genes does not happen.
Then the caterpillar starts to weave its cocoon around itself. He is preparing to die without dying, as Rumi said. It almost melts in the cocoon. All his cells, all his experiences… Genetic heritage, hopes… The caterpillar destroys itself. Because, there is something further in itself, as the Turkish dervish Yunus puts it.
Then patience… Everything takes shape at the right time. It does that I have enough experience, let's get it now. Life has its own clock.
And finally the time comes for the miracle. Time to meet all its colours. Freedom. But the butterfly takes it with caution, too. First, its wings will dry and become stronger…
Change is possible says the butterfly's story. The secret of the miracle is not in the circle around us, not in our shell, but inside us. Not in envelopes, but in the story. Not on the bumps, but in what we go through while overcoming them.
Yüksel Çilingir
