Everytime they made me doubt myself, I shrank back into my shell.
I read and understood. I pondered and wrote. I tried to get deeper into knowing my true self.
They didn’t like the results and tried to put me into one of those little boxes of their making.
I burrowed my way out of them each time they took a shot at me.
Frustated with how I was supposed to be inconsequential, they told me that I was a mere caterpillar, latching onto the leaf.
And I was a caterpillar. But I had a lot of feet to hold myself steady. I had a vision, to morph and fly out one day. I was young and inexperienced, but full of life.
They laughed at me when I went into my cocoon. They told me that I was done, hiding in a place of my own making.
What they couldn’t see was that I was building myself, changing, evolving. Away from their eyes, their scrutiny, a force of nature was at work. The universe was helping me get beautiful and strong.
They went slack jawed when they saw me unfurl my wings for the first time. Too colorful, they sniggered. Too delicate, their critical faces had sinister smiles, when I failed at my first few flight attempts.
I fell and I got stuck. My wings struggled against strong winds. I barely escaped the predators out there. But I didn’t give up on hope and belief that I had in me. I was finally closer to who I was always meant to be.
They were furious and unable to hide it anymore. They snarled at me and told me that I was useless in the grand scheme of things. That I was too dependent on the pretty flowers for my existence. They swore to kill all the flowers and damage all the gardens that I treated as my safe havens.
But I no longer cared for their empty threats and emboldened lies. I kept following my destiny.
Smart as they were, they forgot about the butterfly effect. Somewhere, a butterfly flaps its wings… And the rest was history.
They cry, standing on the rubble of all that they held dear, turned to dust by a tornado. And that unimportant butterfly, slowly glides over their heads, unharmed, untouched, uninhibited; one with the universe. Invincible.