Transformation

Remember this big fat caterpillar that we captured last September?

Last month, I put a newspaper in the recycling pile on top of our beer fridge in the garage and this is what I saw.

Our caterpillar emerged from his cocoon! It only took him six and a half months, but it was worth the wait.

Pete the Polyphemus moth (as we named him) was glorious and gorgeous in every single way.

We know for sure he is a male, because of his bushy antenna. Male polyphemus moths have bushy antenna so they can detect the pheromones that females emit for mating.

The sad news is this: once eclosion (hatching) is complete for a polyphemus moth, they live only about a week.

That means our guy didn’t live long after these photos. It’s sad to think it took months of darkness for him to have such a short time to spread his wings. We should keep that in mind as we go through our own lives. Sometimes the darkness lasts a while because it’s when the most important transformations occur. Transforming is the goal, the purpose, the journey; NOT the transformation.

The time after the transformation is short because that’s really not the point of it all; in the act of transforming is where we find our authentic selves.