THE STORY OF THE MARIPOSA
A fuzzy little caterpillar was crawling along a path which led to a beautiful mountain-top reading garden full of wonderful knowledge and adventure.
As he stopped to rest, the caterpillar stared at the path in front of him and sighed, "I'll never get to the beautiful reading garden. It's so far and the way is too difficult."
For you see, the path to the beautiful reading garden was not straight and smooth and easy to crawl on. Instead, it was bumpy and twisty and full of confusing tangly letters and jumbly words which made absolutely no sense to him at all.
The caterpillar looked longingly toward the distant mountain, then at the path in front of him and sighed once again, "I can't do this, it's too hard."
Just then a beautiful butterfly fluttered down from the mountain top and landed on a jumbly word near the caterpillar.
"Where did you come from?" asked the surprised caterpillar. "You're the most beautiful butterfly I have ever seen."
"I'm a mariposa," replied the butterfly.
"What's a mariposa?" asked the caterpillar.
"It's a very special kind of butterfly which lives in the beautiful reading garden," answered the butterfly.
"Oh, please, tell me how I can become a mariposa so I can live in the beautiful reading garden too," said the caterpillar excitedly.
"It's not easy," said the butterfly. "There is only one way to get to the beautiful garden. You must want to become a mariposa so badly that you're willing to struggle along this path to get there."
The caterpillar hung his head down, shook it slowly from side-to-side and let out a great big sigh. "I'll never get to the beautiful reading garden. I'll never become a beautiful mariposa like you. I might as well not even try."
"Well, it's up to you," said the butterfly. "You can spend the rest of your life creeping and crawling on the ground or you can learn to fly as high as your dreams will take you."
"But it's too hard," said the caterpillar. "Those tangly letters and these jumbly words are so confusing and difficult to get through."
"Difficult, yes. But not impossible," said the butterfly. "I know, because once I was a struggling reading caterpillar just like you."
"You were?" said the caterpillar in surprised disbelief. "But, but..."
"But, with help and determination," continued the butterfly, "the tangly letters and jumbly words became less and less confusing and easier to get through."
"I don't want to crawl on the ground the rest of my life. I want to fly high in the beautiful reading garden," said the caterpillar. "Will you help me?"
"Only if you are you willing to work hard to get there." replied the butterfly.
"I'll work hard," said the caterpillar. "I really will!"
Once again, the caterpillar started to crawl along the path which led to the beautiful reading garden. This time, however, the butterfly fluttered alongside and showed him how to untangle the tangly letters and unjumble the jumbly words.
Soon the caterpillar was untangling letters and unjumbling words so well and so quickly that his crawling speed increased to leaps and bounds.
Suddenly, the butterfly yelled, "Stop!" and the caterpillar came to a screeching halt.
"What's wrong?" asked the startled caterpillar.
"We have arrived," said the butterfly.
The caterpillar had been so busy with his untangling and unjumbling that he didn't realize just how long he had been on the path and how far he had come. And now, as he looked up, he saw in front of him the entrance to the beautiful reading garden. "This place is even more beautiful than I had imagined," he said to the butterfly.
As he continued to stare into the garden, he felt his body go all tingly and goose bumpy. Then he said to the butterfly, "Just a little more crawling and I'll be inside the beautiful reading garden."
"But why do you want to crawl when you can fly?" asked the butterfly.
"What do you mean?" replied the caterpillar.
"Come, take a look in the pond," said the butterfly.
The caterpillar looked into the pond and saw a second beautiful mariposa. "Who is that?" he asked.
"It's you."
Copyright 1997 by George Gasek
