To Thine Own Self Be True

(The monarch butterfly picture I took myself. The rest are care of Google Images.)

Once upon a time there was a little white moth. She was a happy little moth who spent her days doing what she loved best, flying about and watching the world from above. One day, she happened upon a beautiful flower garden. The bounty of bright and varied colors intrigued her so much, she decided to try and get a closer look.

As she fluttered down towards the garden, she noticed that she wasn't alone. Right there also enjoying the rainbow of colors was a cluster of monarch butterflies. As fascinated as she was with the colorful flowers, she was now in even more awe of the beautiful, colorful wings of her fellow garden visitors. She admired the color, the pattern and the detail of each of the monarchs' wings. She suddenly felt quite lost amongst this incredible sea of bright and varied hues. She suddenly felt rather plain and ordinary. The stark whiteness of her wings made her feel very different, like she didn't belong there, but what could she do?  She wished that she could just somehow fit into this wonderful world of colors. No longer feeling the joy she once did in this garden, the little moth decided to leave and continue on to visit a new place. 

She hadn't flown very far at all when she noticed a man, an artist, setting up his easel right near the garden. As she flew in closer, she noticed on the ground some paper, some brushes and then.....  a palette of watercolor paints. She suddenly had an idea. If only she could get some of those brightly colored paints on her plain wings, she would be just as beautiful as the monarchs she now so wanted to look and be just like. She moved as softly and as delicately as a sweet summer's evening breeze across the palette of colors, gently touching down each wing in as many colors as she could. When she was done, the once simple, white moth was now a rainbow of colors and she was so happy.....or at least she thought she was.

She flew back to the garden and back to the cluster of butterflies. She thought for sure the butterflies would be amazed at the rainbow of colors that now adorned her wings......but they weren't. She thought she would try and draw some attention to herself by flying in circles around them. Surely NOW they would notice that her wings were just as pretty....if not even prettier.....than theirs, but they STILL didn't. One by one, the butterflies each decided to move on and flew away........never even once noticing the little moth.

Feeling quite sad and disappointed, she decided to fly down to a nearby puddle and wash away the paint from her wings. She returned to the garden once more and sat upon a flower to dry off in the warm sunshine. "Hey, why do you look so down for?", she heard come from behind her. The question came from another little moth that had landed there.

"I saw some beautiful monarch butterflies before and I wanted to be just like them, so I painted my wings.......but they never even noticed me", she replied.  "What's wrong with just having white wings? I think you look quite pretty just as you are", said her new little moth friend. "You do?" questioned the sad little moth, "But why? I'm so pale and so plain and so ordinary." "No your not" he said " I think you look quite pretty because you look like how you're supposed to look. You look like YOU. If you were meant to look like a butterfly, you would have been a butterfly your whole life. You were always meant to be a moth with wings as white and pretty and bright as freshly fallen snow, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with just being yourself. You are perfect just as you are and you shouldn't try to be something that you're not."

Her new friend's words made her feel happy once more and also made her realize just how silly she was trying to be something that she wasn't. Feeling much better now and much more appreciative or her pretty white wings, our little white moth decided to stop worrying about being a butterfly and instead went back to doing what she always loved best, flying about and exploring. This time she invited her new moth friend to join her, which he happily did. So off the two little moth friends went, in search of more gardens to visit and adventures to have, and I can happily say that they both lived......

Copyright October 24, 2010

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Pictures courtesy of Google Images.