A friend told me a story about a caterpillar.

This young caterpillar was the first egg to hatch and ate up her shell faster than anyone else.  She was skating down the path to becoming the beautiful butterfly that was in her.  She did all of the right things.  She ate all of the nutritious stuff available.  Everyone around her said so.  They even told other, younger caterpillars to do just what this caterpillar was doing.  Months later, she started her cocoon, and she spun and spun and it was the best cocoon ever.  It had a separate chamber in case another caterpillar needed shelter from a substandard cocoon.

The caterpillar metamorphosed into a spectacularly beautiful butterfly.   The problem was that the cocoon was so carefully woven that the beautiful butterfly became ensnared in the fibers.  She couldn’t find her way out.  All of sudden she was frightened of what was outside.  Maybe she was meant to stay in the cocoon that was becoming her prison.

Her friends who were caterpillars had since become butterflies.  Some had holes in their wings, some had scars from life and some turned out to have colors as dull as moths.  But all surrounded the cocoon and begged the beautiful butterfly to come out and fly free.  Her friends knew that the world would be even a more wondrous place if she left her cocoon and spread her wings.  She would be so happy soaring!!

But the butterfly knew that her friends had been flying for a while and had laid their eggs and what if she couldn’t fly as high or as well because of all the years in the cocoon?  Nonsense, her friends told her.  “You were born to soar but you have to shed your cocoon.  It is dragging you down.  Flying weightless into the great blue sky and seeing the wonders of the great world is an experience like no other.  And you will appreciate it more because of your time in your cocoon.”

She whispered, “I will try soon but I am afraid right now.”

“We will be here when you first fly,” her friends responded.  “We know you won’t fall, but we will be there to catch you if you forget that you are not a caterpillar anymore.”

I asked my friend, “and, then?”

My friend paused and thought for a minute.  And my friend said, “There is no end.  There are only new beginnings.”