I woke up this morning wondering a strange question.
Dan and I have sometimes found monarch caterpillar eggs on the milkweed growing on our property. We bring them inside, place them in a butterfly cage, and watch as the caterpillars eat… and eat… and eat… until one day, they form a chrysalis. And eventually — miraculously — a butterfly emerges.
Which leads to the question that came to me this morning.
I wonder if the caterpillar ever gets tired of eating milkweed?
Milkweed is the only thing monarch caterpillars eat.
They don’t have other options or a menu to choose from.
So does the caterpillar reach a point where it thinks, “I’m tired of this?”
Is that what nudges it toward the chrysalis? Or is it something else entirely?
What if the caterpillar actually loves milkweed — and yet a deeper impulse begins to stir inside? A longing that milkweed no longer satisfies the way it once did.
A whispering… “There’s something more for me.”
So then I wonder…
Is it hard for the caterpillar to give up what’s familiar and predictable?
To give up what once worked – even if it is no longer as fulfilling?
It reminds me of that first bite of chocolate after I haven’t had any in a while. It tastes incredible. But by the time I’ve reached the last of it, the pleasure just isn’t the same.
And yet… I keep eating it.
I wonder if the caterpillar feels that same tension — between what it knows and what it senses. Between what it’s used to and what it’s being called toward. As it gives up being a caterpillar with no guarantee of what comes next.
Because the caterpillar doesn’t really KNOW. It can’t know how free and expansive life will be as a butterfly.
As a caterpillar, its world is small.
Milkweed leaf after milkweed leaf.
As a butterfly?
The world opens.
It no longer eats the milkweed — it uses it to lay egss and bring more life into the world.
As it does when it moves freely from flower to flower, feeding on nectar, pollinating plants, helping fruit to grow.
The relationship to milkweed doesn’t disappear – it transforms.
But the caterpillar doesn’t know that.
It only knows the longing inside that is calling it beyond “more milkweed.”
Calling it to more freedom and aliveness.
And, eventually, it surrenders to it. And trusts the process.
So what does this have to do with you… or me?
We — you and me — are BOTH caterpillars and butterflies.
We’ve grown up in a world that teaches us to do more. Make more. Consume more.
Become better, faster, bigger.
To become the best caterpillar version of ourselves.
And for a while, it seems to work. Our lives are good.
But then… something might start to feel off.
No matter how much we do. No matter how much we make.
No matter how capable or accomplished we are…
It still doesn’t feel like its enough.
We might feel tired. Or stuck — trapped in the life we’ve created for ourselves. Feeling guilty that we’re not more grateful.
Some of us might rebel and simplify, do less, try to opt out of the game. And yet we’re still caterpillars.
The way out of The Abundance Trap – with its overemphasis on more, bigger, better, faster – isn’t to become a smaller caterpillar.
It’s to listen to the deeper call of our souls within us.
The call to go beyond The Abundance TrapTM is to discover and experience the MORE that truly satisfies.
Not by becoming the biggest or best caterpillar – but by becoming the butterfly you are meant to be.
Become a pollinator – sharing resources and life-giving gifts in the world and feeling more free and ALIVE in the process.
That’s why the butterfly is part of my logo. It’s the symbol for lifebeyond The Abundance Trap.
For us – unlike for a caterpillar – this is a daily practice and choice to embrace a different model for money and abundance.
To listen to the Divine Spirit within us instead of the societal and cultural scripts we’ve inherited.
To open to, participate in and contribute to the “something bigger” we are all part of.
A choice to trust in the face of “not knowing” – yourself, life and the Source of Life.
This, my friend, are the wonderings and ponderings that I woke up to today.
I’m curious… what have my ponderings stirred within you?
Is something inside of you calling you toward freedom? To say “yes” to your own process of becoming a butterfly?
Are you getting tired of “milkweed” and ready for a different kind of “more” – on that nourishes you mind, body AND soul?
What is stirring in you right now?
And are you willing to listen?
Are you willing to share? (If so, I’d love to hear!)