REFLECTION

The Story Of Cathy The Catterpillar

Crawling through the amazon forrest. Her body too heavy for take off. Her dreams were something to be forgotten.

Everyday she woke up to the view of the green magical mountain waterfall. Tired of bathing in the left over water on the ground. All Cathy the catterpillar wanted was to taste pure water with no pieces of sand or scent of feet.
Stoop on the mountains and feel the suns heat that couldn’t even be blocked by even the tallest of tree’s.

She was alone. Sad and confused. Her mother Betty the Butterfly happy , flying high up in the sky & loved by all. While she was fat and hated by all .

“Why cant I be beautiful like mommy? When will I taste that fruit from the high tree? God why don’t you love me? God please come down I don’t think you have seen me.”

Days and nights passed. Some of her friends were squished flat by the shoes of man. Everytime her sisters disappeared from the ground, months later they came back and flew to the clouds as butterflies.

One day she ate and ate as many leaves as she could. Ran away to the lake and was suddenly stopped by her reflection on the water staring back at her. Angry at what she saw, she crawled and struggled making her way up the forrest tree.

She hung upside down, ready to throw herself down to the ground in hopes she would die. Just when she was a about to let go from the branch. A voice came from the sky saying “Hold on Cathy my child & tell me what is it that you really want?”

She cried “Father why cant I be thin and beautiful like mother?” God smiled and asked “Who said fat is ugly? Look at the Elephant, Look at the Rhino. They are not the prettiest of animals, but my child people will only see you how you want them to see you.” Cathy looked more confused and God continued “Listen Child, If you see beauty in your faults and find those who love you for who you are, what others think wont affect what you think of yourself.” Cathy now was seeing what her Father was saying and was starting to smile. “Let me leave you with these words my child” God said as he was leaving Cathy “You can let go of the branch and die or you can hang on and change the things you dont like about yourself and have a story to tell that would change the lives of other catterpillars to learn to love themselves. I’ll let you eat yourself inside a ball called a cacoon for six month. If you dont like something about yourself, change it. If you cant change it, then live with it and so will others. Or you can let go and many others like will continue doing the same.”

God patted Cathy and left. Cathy held on the whole night thinking until she fell asleep . To her surprise she woke up in a caccoon and had six months to make her new body.

She was changing herself everyday until she realised that she was changing herself to be loved by others and was not changing herself so she could love herself. So she decided to be unique from all the butterflies and knew what she did was all thanks to the man in the sky.

The day came, Cathy came out flying to her mountain top and get her light that she always wanted. But on her everyone was stopping and pointing at her, Cathy was something was different. She was not blue, purple , pink or green like any other other butterfly. Cathy was brown ,black and white . All she loved was flying around at night and was attracted to light not flowers.

She now didn’t wake up to the view of her favourite magical mountain. She instead woke up on her favourite mountain and tasted the finest water from the waterfall and looked down at the tall trees that have been blocking her from the light her whole life. But she knew something was missing, why isn’t she happy? Until one day she saw some catterpillars looking at her from below with tears in their eyes.

Cathy went down to speak to the abondoned catterpillars as she knew the feeling of feeling unwanted and wished you were in another body. At first they looked at her funny and whispered names as she stooped in the rock in front of them. She smiled and said “Calling another ugly, doesn’t make you beautiful. What makes you beautiful, is accepting another as they are and seeing beyond your eyes.”

Cathy made her last announcement before she flew off and said “From today you will no longer call me an ugly butterfly, I am what you call a Moth. I love the moons reflection and I love light. When others sleep at night and dream, I wake up fly and live my dream.”

For generations and generations the tale of the brave catterpillar who inspired many and became the first moth in the world is still celebrated by catterpillars every where & in her rememberance every night moths fly towards any light and gather sing.

So like that Brave catterpillar why dont you my children ask yourself this question today. Why fit in? When you can stand out? Like the catterpillar if you dont like something change it, if you cant then live with it. Live to love yourself and others will love you too.

-The End-

By Luthando Dayile

$igned : Lucky