Caterpillar and Beauty

The bell rang, but the children could not calm down. Summer holidays ended so quickly and all their energy that was awakened by the sun did not want to settle into the tight schedule of lessons and short breaks. “It would be great if the lessons were as long as the breaks, and the breaks were as long as the lessons!” I said.

The children supported this idea with laughter and fell silent for a minute. “Energy is the power that is in each of us,” I said, and added, “Today we will try to understand how the beauty of a butterfly helps it fly over oceans.” “And what if we don’t understand?” the boy at the last desk asked. Laughter rang out in the class again.

“Then we will know what we can find out, but this will not prevent the butterfly from flying over the ocean.” I responded and added, “Any knowledge is a journey into the unknown. Can this journey come to an end? By limiting our cognition, we limit our own selves, because Life is a continuing process of developing by improvement. Let’s go on this journey!” “And about the butterfly?” came a question. “And about the butterfly too!” Welcome to Fairy-Tale World!

Olga and the Fairy Tale Team 😊

CATERPILLAR AND BEAUTY

A chubby green Caterpillar daydreamed about being beautiful. . . . She could not imagine when but had no doubt it would happen. In the meantime, she continued to dream with inspiration, “In just a little while, I will be blue or yellow, as the flowers that grow in the meadow. I won’t be green anymore, I’m tired of it! Well . . . maybe a red color might be better?”

Caterpillar did not notice that she had begun to speak loudly. From the outside, it looks funny: a green creature, hanging from a stem and talking to herself. Big Beetle, who was flying about his deeds, stopped and landed close to Caterpillar. Looking around, and not seeing anybody, Beetle asked carefully, “Err . . . who are you talking to?” Caterpillar flinched in surprise, nearly falling off her stem. She was silent for a moment, and then answered sheepishly, “I . . . I was talking to myself.”

“Foolishness!” Beetle muttered and was about to fly on, but at the last moment, he paused and asked, “I’m sorry. Don’t you have anything better to do?” Caterpillar was surprised. “I do! I am dreaming about my beauty,” she said. Now, Beetle almost fell off the stem and, flying to a more stable place, a strong leaf of burdock, asked carefully, “E-mm . . . for how long?”

“O-oo! I have dreamed about my beauty for a long time!” Caterpillar smiled modestly and began to crawl from her stem to the burdock leaf, near Beetle. On the way she continued, “A true dream always lives a long time. A real dream ripens like a seed and you take care of it, cherish it, and return to it as if you would to a fabulous place.”

Beetle thoughtfully stroked his gorgeous tendrils with his paw and, looking attentively at Caterpillar, asked, “Is your dream just to be beautiful? That’s it? Nothing more?” “Of course! Is it bad? It is better to be beautiful! Everyone loves you. . . . Now, no one looks at me because I am green, ugly, and fat. If I was beautiful, o-oo . . . then it would be a different matter! I would look at the World differently, and the World would look at me differently. Isn’t this a real dream?” asked Caterpillar.

“Hmm! Who knows which dream is real and which is not? For me, for example, your dream isn’t interesting, because I’m already beautiful!” Beetle proudly puffed forward his red tummy, buzzed his shiny black wings, and continued, “I have a dream of my own. But I won’t tell anyone what it is . . .”

“If you don’t want to, don’t tell . . .” Caterpillar sighed sadly and added, “I so want to be beautiful! I don’t know when or how, but I want to be different. I’m so ugly now—phooey!”

“Uh-oh! How is it possible to offend yourself like that?” From under the burdock leaf, came soft rustlings, and soon Centipede appeared upon the leaf, quickly flickering her countless legs. “Good day! How is it possible to offend yourself like that?” she said again and smiled. “Look how many legs I have!” She, one by one, lifted each small leg and became like an undulating ribbon touched by the wind.

“So what? You are proud of them!?” Beetle exclaimed. “That’s it! That’s what I’m talking about.” Centipede eagerly responded, “Of course, I am very proud. I have as many of them as Nature herself gave me and I need all of them. Nature will give someone else exactly what only he needs. Every living thing has its own Beauty . . .”

“Beauty, beauty . . .” muttered someone from below. On the ground’s surface, under the burdock, a mound appeared, and at the next moment Mole emerged from it and asked grumblingly, “What do I care about your beauty if I can’t see it?”

“Real beauty is always visible,” Centipede responded.

“If beauty is visible everywhere, it would be difficult to hide it. Maybe hide it underground? But . . . why hide it, if everyone needs beauty?” reasoned Mole.

Caterpillar crawled to the burdock leaf’s edge and finally stopped. “Yes! Everyone needs beauty!” she said and continued, “Real beauty is when everyone feels good! Even if you do not see it, but only know it is in the World.”

“Hmm! Does that mean that my beauty is all I need?” Beetle was indignant, offended, and puffed up his gorgeous tendrils. He turned in a huff and trudged to the burdock leaf’s edge.

Centipede gently stopped him, “Wait! Beauty is not just your eyes, tendrils, and tummy. Who yesterday helped small Striped Bug to bring food to his house? And who, earlier, saved Butterfly from a web? Who picked up little Ant, who was late for home?”

Beetle was agitated, touched his paw to his gorgeous tendrils, and asked, “Do you mean beauty is also beautiful deeds?”

“Yes! Yes!” laughed Bee, who flew to the white chamomiles in the meadow. “Everyone who has in his heart Kindness, Love, Wisdom, Joy, and Respect for others is really beautiful!” she added and, saying goodbye to everyone, flew away. It had become quiet around the big burdock.

The day continued with everyone going on with their own affairs. Everyone has their own uniqueness given to them by Nature . . . and everyone has the same within that can’t be hidden. . . . Only the chubby green Caterpillar remained. But now, her own color and size did not bother her as much as before. And for some reason, she didn’t want to eat at all. Her eyes began to close and only one thought kept spinning in her head: “Sleep . . . Sleep . . .”

Caterpillar felt that something unusual was waiting for her. She began to wrap around herself in a soft, soft blanket, which she spun from thin, shiny threads surprisingly quickly. “I really want to sleep,” Caterpillar whispered again, and fell asleep settling under the burdock leaf, like a baby in a cradle.

She didn’t know what was going to happen, and what she would look like when she woke up. It wasn’t that important anymore. On an unknown mysterious journey, she took with her the amazing greatest feeling—Beauty of the World. . . .

From the book “Happy Home Fairy Tales for children and adults” https://olgaverasen.com/library/

P.S. About students and lessons. . . . The conversation in the lesson that I wrote above in this newsletter was many years ago. The students have grown up and many of them are now raising their own children. I keep such stories in my heart. They are so different and at the same time, the same in that they reflect Beauty. There is such Beauty in each of us.

This is the Beauty that awakens the Power of Life and helps us create in life what seemed incredible at the beginning. Each masterpiece that knows no time limits, first, does not know the limits of the heart of the one who created it, because the Beauty that lives in the heart knows no limits.

When we discover it in ourselves, it, shining with all the colors of the rainbow, is reflected in our deeds, directing our Power to the creation of Life. It is astonishing how a butterfly flies across the ocean 😊

More resources for you https://olgaverasen.com/articles-and-practices/