THE BEGINNING

Like so many of the things we learn in life it seems impossible to remember when the delightful and insightful little story by Trina Paulus first entered my bank of knowledge. In her story, ‘Hope for the Flowers,’ we follow the life of two caterpillars named Stripe and Yellow as they struggle through one phase of existence and eventually give into the necessary events which allow them to fulfill their purpose for existence.

We read about Stripe who becomes bored with eating the same leaves from the same tree and goes exploring and finds a pillar of caterpillars crawling all over each other in their quest to get to the top with no understanding what they will find when they get there. Finding Yellow brings a brief escape for Stripe from the crawling pillar, but eventually he is drawn back into the squirming mess leaving Yellow behind in spite of her pleadings.

While Stripe spends his days pushing and shoving, crawling his way to the top, Yellow grieves his absence and one day finds a graying caterpillar weaving himself into a cocoon. In her conversation with the wizened one she is told that the goal she and Stripe are trying to find can only be found by giving up the unreachable quest of the pillar. She tries to find and convince Stripe but when her mission is unsuccessful she returns to her home tree to weave her own cocoon.

When Yellow emerges in her destined form as a beautiful yellow butterfly she flies to the pillar and after some time convinces Stripe that the pillar is not the way to find fulfillment. Stripe returns to the home tree and begins to weave his own cocoon.

In this charming and insightful tale Trina gives us reason to pause in our own squirmy lives to reflect on the pillar we are so frantically trying to climb.

How do I view the multitude of those who are on the pillar with me?

Are they just rungs to be stepped on and over in my quest?

Is anything I say or do to get past them justified because it advances my cause?

Do I mistrust all they say and do and weigh all with suspicion?

Do I distinguish ‘good’ by chosen colors of pigmentation, political preferences and social status?

Do I get so caught up in the squeamish crawling that voices of reason are but unrecognized distant echoes?

OR

Do I view the multitude as an unending opportunity to be of service?

Do I weigh my every act and word in the balance of Eternal truths?

Do I trust my fellow travelers, in spite of their follies, recognizing that they also are struggling to find the way?

Do I love the rainbow spectrum, the varieties of understanding and the richness of cultural climates?

Do I seek out and listen to those who have gone before who perhaps know more of the better way?

What is the instrument I use to examine life; a telescope, a microscope or eternal lenses?

Do I spend so much time looking so far off that I fail to see the beauty in my unexamined present?

Do I spend so much time examining the tiny dark corners of my cubicled now that I leave the brighter tomorrows unexamined?

Am I so busy rushing back and forth from telescope to microscope that my eternal lenses are clouded with years of doubt and skepticism?

Have the marketers of the telescopes and microscopes done their job so well that the reality of the next glorious stage of life has been removed from view?

OR

Do I balance my looking afar off and my narrowest perspectives with the exalted view from the heavens?

Do I make sure in the busyness my hithering and thithering that I find moments to refresh my life with hope and faith?

Do I make sure that I keep the propaganda of the present in perspective by frequently retuning to the messages of those whose shared life experiences keep eternal visions alive?

Trina Paulus’ message in ‘Hope for the Flowers’ is special in its simplicity and bounteous in its beatitudes and when understood should help us all to realize that the pushing and pulling of this life are not why we have come, but are merely a prelude to the beginning of our true existence. I pray that today we will all begin to spin the cocoon which will eventually release us into that glorious beginning.