Are you still a caterpillar?

THIS WEEK’S WINNER

MANILA, Philippines - Monet P. Ba-uto is a corporate serf in Makati City who adores Sunday broadsheets, fashion sketches, travel blogs and is one of the few who like airline food.  “I believe I was an Italian in my past life, ergo, I dream of traveling to Roma in pursuit of the finest gelato.  I want to set up my own dark room one day because film photography rocks!  I’m a huge CNN fan.  I’ve lost count of how many books I own.”

I chanced upon this yellow book reminiscent of summer while Christmas shopping inside a bookstore in December 2006. It escaped me at first, why this seemingly children’s book was at the wrong side of the bookstore, bright and cheery among stacks of adult self-help and psychology books. 

I took a closer look at the cover: Hope For The Flowers by Trina Paulus, “a tale — partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope for adults and others (including caterpillars who can read).”

The aforementioned invitation on the cover instantly captured my interest. As I thumbed through the pages at home after purchasing it, I knew I had hit pay dirt. It may pass as just a simple bedtime storybook but it turned out to be a lovely surprise, loaded with profound insights that are found in simple things. Lessons that evade us in the shifting sands of the daily grind. It is something I wish I had read at an earlier point in my adult life and something that, to this day, remains a fail-safe source whenever I need a dose of inspiration.

The story begins with Stripe, a black-and-white caterpillar who wants more out of life than eating and crawling. One day, he finds a pillar of caterpillars climbing towards the sky. He asks what is at the top but no one has the answer so he decides to take the plunge into the pile and find out for himself. It is not an easy climb; the caterpillars are pushing at each other just to get to the top. It is a climb-or-be-climbed-over situation. 

He soon meets another caterpillar named Yellow and steps on her head in order for him to move his way up the pillar. Guilt surges through him and he apologizes to Yellow. Together, they climb down and spend happy days hugging, eating grass and loving each other. But after being together for some time, the secret of the top still haunts Stripe. Yellow does not want to get in the way of Stripe’s success but, somehow, going back to the pillar does not feel right for her. She knows that climbing is not the real way to get to the “top.” 

Nevertheless Stripe leaves Yellow and throws himself at the pillar again. He needs to follow his heart and find out what it is at the peak. 

At the same time, Yellow becomes lonely and desolate without Stripe. One day, a gray-haired caterpillar shares a wonderful secret with her that will soon shape their lives…the real path to getting at the top.

This wonderful allegory about dreams, courage, love and hope can be finished in one go but the deep wisdom it eloquently portrays will last a lifetime, for people of all ages. It is about dreaming, about being driven towards paving our own paths and beating the odds to be able to reach for our stars. A person who does not dream does not have much because our goals adorn our lives with more purpose and meaning. 

Having dreams to realize will make it easier for us to jump out of bed each daybreak. However, having our own dreams to fulfill does not mean we should forget about fighting fairly and with a clean conscience. In the book, Stripe and the caterpillars step on each other to climb to the top.   It may be a dog-eat-dog world out there but how can one own and savor his place at the top if he attains it at the expense of other people? Yellow teaches us the true substance of success: to fly to the peak of your dreams without hurting anyone. 

The story is also about courage. Stripe had to be brave and pay the price of leaving his comfort zone to set forth in his journey towards his destination. He worked hard and stopped at nothing, he kept a single-minded approach despite the nebulous end result of his decision. Yellow also had to exhibit courage in giving up the only life she had known for something she was yet to experience. 

One of my favorite wisdom quotes is from Anais Nin: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Often, our fears of the unknown hinder our growth, our apprehensions block our way, ergo, we are unable to take that giant leap. We can dream and shoot for the stars all we want but without the courage of the heart and mind to actually realize them, we won’t end up anywhere than the very same spot where we started. Nobody said it would be a cakewalk but fearlessness brought Yellow to what she was destined to be, a beautiful butterfly that joins the earth to heaven.

The two caterpillars’ stories are one about love, too. For love, in all its forms, is truly of paramount significance to our existence. Yellow’s unconditional love for Stripe prompted her to let him find his own way in the world, even if that meant she would be left alone. It exemplifies that the best thing you can ever do for someone you love is to set them free. It may sound trite, yes, but ironically, it is what most of us often fail to grasp. Like Yellow, we must let our loved ones go and make their own choices, we must allow them to leave some room to stumble, fall and get back on their feet again, wiser and on an even keel each and every time. 

Limiting our loved ones’ capacity to follow their bliss for our own self-seeking intentions would only prevent them from flourishing like butterflies. Also, the story teaches us that our family and loved ones will always be the constant characters in our journey, through hell and high water. In the end, Yellow came back for Stripe, despite already being an entirely different creature from him and pulled him out of the pillar to show him what he was meant to become. 

The story, most of all, encompasses a valuable lesson about hope. Hope fortifies dreams, courage and love. To view the world from a sanguine vantage point is the core essence of this book: that thing called hope. It makes us believe that there is a butterfly in each and every one of us, and only if we dare to dream, if we let courage steer the wheels of those dreams, if we let love strengthen that courage and if we let hope radiantly shine through that love in our hearts, can we become beautiful butterflies. And there would be hope for the flowers to bloom nonstop.

Because, really, it all begins with a lot of hope.