by Rev. Dr. Mariano C. Apilado
Since I left Davao City more than three weeks ago, I have established a routine of waking up in the morning about 5:30 o’clock and walking around our backyard garden of about 600 square meters at Las-ud, Caba, La Union.
I remember when I was in Davao, I used to walk to Bankerohan market two or three times a week about 5:30 a.m. to buy fruits, vegetables and fish. And, of course, I would pass by the flower market and buy roses and chrysanthemums for my wife, Nellie.
Here in my new location, my habit of waking up and walking at 5:30 o’clock has continued, but this time, I have been planting and transplanting papaya seedlings, squash, calamunggay, ampalaya, eggplants and the like, or simply walking around.
Last Wednesday, June 23, about 7:00 o’clock in the morning, I was fascinated by a butterfly that was fluttering from one flower to the other.
Then I remembered a small book that was published sometime in 1972, entitled Hope for the Flowers.
The book is about the adventures of two caterpillars, one Stripe and the other Yellow, who set out into the world to find out the meaning of life.
They were just wandering around aimlessly when they saw a group of probably hundreds of caterpillars jostling with and against each other trying to reach the top.
They joined the jostling and as they tried to reach the top, suffering extreme difficulty along the way, once in a while, they would push and cause some caterpillars to fall down.
But never mind. That was part of life. Some had to fall down so that they could reach the top, and they finally did.
They were disappointed, extremely disappointed, though, because there was nothing at the top. They found no meaning and no fulfilling feeling, but instead, they found themselves in danger of falling all the way down.
So, slowly, but carefully this time, they climbed down. When they finally reached ground, they decided to part company and seek life and its meaning individually.
Stripe had an uneventful several days and probably one or two weeks until one day as she was again loitering, she saw a strange creature hovering and smiling over her.
Finally, the strange creature .stopped in front of her and Stripe recognized that it was her friend Yellow, but already different, beautifully different.
“Yellow, is that you?” Stripe asked. “Yes, I am Yellow,” her friend joyously answered.
“What happened?” Stripe asked.
“I don’t know,” Yellow answered. “All I remember is that one day, my world became dark, extremely dark. I was afraid but I could not do anything. So, I just waited. I thought it was the end of the world,” Yellow continued.
“Then, this morning, everything became bright, fresh and beautiful. So, here I am,” Yellow happily concluded.
“You mean, you died, yes, you must have died?” Stripe managed to ask.
“What I was had died so that I could become what I am truly meant to be,” Yellow explained.
Isn’t Yellow’s statement a beautiful insight about the meaning of life, of struggle, of dying to our former selves so that we could become what we truly are?
At the beginning of the school year, or the beginning of any venture in life, like the new administration of government, or change of leadership in the church, the message is that new situations teach new duties and new duties require new attitudes and personality change.
I tried to follow the butterfly, but the more I tried, the more the butterfly avoided me. But the lesson it has given has remained.
Willingness to change is the key to the attainment of the beauty of life and to becoming what one is meant to become wherever one is located.
