Metamorphosis

When I was a little girl, my mother planted Butterfly weed. Its bright orange flowers riddle the side garden beds by the driveway.

Every year, the cute little striped monarch caterpillars would munch on its soft fuzzy leaves. They would finally spin their chrysalises, and we would transfer the branch onto your island counter. And every year, we would watch the miracle of metamorphosis unfold.

This process has been coming up a lot in my life these past few weeks, so I let my curiosity lead me towards it. And I am fascinated with how the process plays out.

First, after spinning its chrysalis, the caterpillar DIGESTS itself. It literally turns into a liquid. But this fluid has within these imaginal discs. These cells contain the code for creating all the parts of a butterfly: their eyes, their legs, their wings, their cute little antennae.

These discs know how to rearrange the caterpillar and transform it into its more majestic form. She already has the answers within her. The “code” to her evolution was always inside. And to get to the next stage, she needed to dissolve first, undisturbed by the outside world. 

And what's even more fascinating to me is there is scientific evidence that some species can remember what they learned as a caterpillar. It is the same creature at her core, however different the final form physically presents.

So some weeks later, when the transformation is complete, the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, ready to meet the world, with new beautiful wings, ready to soar, carrying with her all the lessons she learned from her time on the ground.