science / growth / nature

BUTTERFLY GOO

For most of us, butterflies were a component of one of our earliest science-class experiments, watching a mushy caterpillar build a cocoon and turn into a majestic winged creature. But what I didn’t learn from that experiment, and what has altered my perspective on growth, is what happens inside the cocoon.

You see, caterpillars don’t simply make a cocoon, slender down, and grow some wings. Rather, they disintegrate into what can only be described as “butterfly goo.” That’s right—somewhat grossly, the caterpillar releases enzymes that make it digest itself until nothing remains but its cells. After that, the cells begin reforming into disks that will eventually form all the parts of a butterfly.

I can’t help but think that we, too, are like butterflies, and that meaningful change is not a superficial process that simply gives us wings. Change is, instead, a delicate disintegration of everything we used to be that makes us into who we will become. Real change, the kind that matters, sometimes means we must enter our own cocoon away from the pressures in the world, melt into goo, and reemerge.

If you’re in the midst of painful growth, remember that from the messy, sticky goo comes a graceful butterfly.