The Butterfly Effect

The only certainties in life are death and taxes but we are not going to discuss them. Let's talk about life and the metamorphosis. Metamorphosis of insects and in particular a butterfly. When we experienced or witnessed a childbirth, we instantly knew it to be a miracle. If we were to look at the metamorphosis of a butterfly, it is also an amazing miracle no less.


A man once asked God for a plant that has colourful flowers and a butterfly to add to his garden but instead he was given a cactus and a caterpillar. He was surprised as he was given something different to what he had asked for. Doesn't he seems to be like us? Then one day, he has a wonderful surprise when the cactus bloomed and the caterpillar turned into a stunning, beautiful butterfly.


Egg
I want you to look at ourselves, our very own metamorphosis where we are transformed at different stages in life just like the butterfly. Like people, there are a wide variety of butterflies. These insects go through several stages of transformation from egg, larva, pupa to adult. The female butterfly have to be selective in choosing a right plant to lay their eggs as the caterpillar will need to feed from the plant. The larva feeds from the egg which takes about a week to hatch before it emerges from the egg.

(The beautiful sound of Yanni in Butterfly Dance) -


Larva
The larva is the caterpillar which grows very fast as it feeds on the leaves and quickly becomes an adult caterpillar. It goes through a molting process as it sheds its skin and this happens a few times as it outgrows the skin. It will then find a safe place to pupate by making a silk-like mat on the surface from where it hangs upside down.

The superb music of Chris Spheeris - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5d89RtADI8

Pupa
The skin of the caterpillar is shed a final time and the casing is called chrysalis. The soft chrysalis gradually hardens to form a protective shell. A transformation is taking place as the body of the caterpillar disintegrate to form the body of a butterfly.


Butterfly
The hardened chrysalis eventually cracks and the adult butterfly emerges. At this juncture, the wings are still wet and small. A life-saving fluid "hemolymph" begins to be pumped into and flow in the body of the butterfly. It will spread throughout the body and then to the wings. This helps to strengthen the body and the wings. Once the wings are dried, the butterfly is ready to take off and fly. The butterfly is one of the most beautiful insects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmC3rJR7E98&ob=av2e (Bob Carlisle - Butterfly Kisses)












There was a boy who caught sight of a butterfly pupa in a chrysalis and brought it home. He later witnessed the butterfly struggling to break free from the hardened shell. It was a painful struggle and the boy being helpful, good-naturedly went forth to provide aid to it helping it to crack open. Emerging from it was a beautiful adult butterfly. The boy was pleased with himself for a good deed. However, his joy was short lived as the butterfly struggles to spread its wings and fly and soon after it died. He couldn't understand a thing why it had happened.

His mother soon explained to him that when he thought he was helping the butterfly in its struggle to break free, it actually killed the butterfly eventually as the butterfly needed to struggle so that the chemical "hemolymph" - the life-saving fluid could be released in the struggle so as to strengthen the body and the wings. When it did not need to struggle, it could not be strengthened and was weakened and died.

This is the same as our human metamorphosis. The problems and struggles in our lives are necessary so as to make us strong. Do you realise that each time you emerge from some troubles or problems you grew stronger mentally and physically, you build more immunity, you gained more experience, you build your character and you are wiser? What didn't kill you will make you stronger.

The Butterfly Effect
The butterfly effect is a term used in Chaos Theory on how tiny variations can affect giant and complex systems such as the patterns of weather. It kind of suggests that the wing movement of a butterfly may cause repercussion on wind strength of the world's weather like a tornado. It suggests that the prediction of complex patterns is impossible unless you account for all the tiny factors which may only have a minute effect on the system. Therefore, the weather is almost impossible to predict as there are just too many unknowns and too many variables. It is also asked what might happen if one traveled back in time. Could your past actions affect your future? In our human behaviour, even small changes can render us unpredictable. Experiences stored in our subconscious mind can affect people unexpectedly. In very simple words, the butterfly effect means that the smallest actions can have a big effect and huge consequences for bad or good. So, peeps, let us please watch our small actions so that the consequences are only good ones! Watch what we do now as what we do now becomes our past action that affects our future.

Rest














At other times in life, we may be chasing after something or pursuing them endlessly. You realise that you are running in circles and you get tired and yet these things that you want proved elusive. Remember, man who runs after bus gets "exhausted" and man who runs in front of bus gets "tired". Rest my friend. Relax and be patient. Life is sometimes like chasing a butterfly. The more you run after it, the more elusive it gets. It flies higher and further away from you and you not only loose grasp of it you will lose sight of it.

Just when you thought you have given up and while you sat still, disappointed, panting and reflecting from your eternal loss of that beautiful butterfly, it flutters around and comes back and sits quietly on your shoulder.

I leave you this quote below as food for thought.
If an egg is broken by an outside force, a life ends.
If an egg breaks from within, life begins. Great things always begin from within.


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