Creativity and the Butterfly Life Cycle

Creativity and the Butterfly Life Cycle  by Margot Cioccio 

Thanks to Unsplash photographers: Nathan Dumlao, Yoal Desurmont and Boudewijn Huysmans.

I dreamed about a beautiful butterfly. It was like a family pet that followed us around. One day it became weak and was no longer thriving. I decided to released it in the yard and hoped that nature would revive it, and it would not stepped on or eaten by a dog. 

Most often we think of butterflies in their adult glory as they grace the fields and flowers with their marvelous beauty. I generally think of butterflies as a representation of transformation taking place in the lives of people. The well known story of how the ordinary, even ugly caterpillar eats and eats and one day becomes creates a cocoon from which it eventually emerges as the delicate beautiful butterfly. We celebrate the butterfly for emerging from the mundane. The mundane process is all to soon forgotten and rarely celebrated. 

The butterfly can represent freedom. Having made it to the 4th stage of its life, its purpose at this point is to find a mate and reproduce. We so often celebrate the glory in our lives or in the lives of others but forget that it is just the last of the four stages of an on going cycle. The average life span of a butterfly is only about a month.The four stages are the egg, the larva, what we generally call the caterpillar. Then the Pupa or the Chrysalis stage and finally the  graceful butterfly. 

There are goals at each stage that must be met. If they are not met the generational future of butterflies are in danger. Thankfully that future is not left to one individual butterfly. The Monarch will lay 500 eggs, one egg at a time on the underside of many leafs. She must lay those eggs on the kind of leaves that the new baby caterpillar can immediately eat. Food must be readily available for that tiny baby. It is too small and vulnerable at first to travel to find food. 

I’d like to look at butterflies as creative ideas. The life cycle of a butterfly is filled with obstacles. In the egg and caterpillar stage a hungry bird might eat you. I suppose there is wisdom in not putting all your eggs in the same basket or on the same leaf if you are a butterfly. 

As I go about my day what ideas am I laying into the lives of others. Perhaps my ideas will simply be food for others to help them grow. I don’t know when an idea may spark something or what eggs may hatch and become hungry caterpillars that might one day become butterflies that help to encourage and inspire others. 

I have always struggled with what I want to be when I grow up because I have so many avenues of interest. It has always been hard to choose. While in art school my professors advised that I pick one medium and work to develop it as my artistic expression. I seem to be like that butterfly I go through cycles where I gobble up a subject, experiment, turn it over and over in my mind and then finally create something beautiful. Then I move on to a new idea. 

If you were to look at my desk you might wonder how I get anything done. I have stacks of papers and books and stuff all about. I realized that I am more creative with in a slightly messy environment. When I look at nature I don’t see tidy rows, I see randomness, an organic messy kind of beauty. When my desk is too neat its like that blank canvas or white piece of paper. It leads to instant creative block. If it is all clean and tidy I don’t want to mess it up. There is something comforting and inspiring about my slightly messy desk.  It represents a multitude of ideas and projects.  Some mundane like bills and taxes and others creative like journals, song snippets and drawing ideas. In some ways my bits of paper and clutter are like the multitude of leaves the adult butterfly has laid a huge variety of ideas upon.

Some of those ideas may one day become something. Others are just part of the creative process. They needed written down to make room for creative space within my brain for other ideas to grow and develop. When I am working on big projects my brain is constantly churning. The creative process is almost like being pregnant. Then giving it birth and raising it up so that others may be inspired by it. 

I generally don’t like the time that is in between creative projects. I feel like that Chrysalis just hanging around that is seemingly doing nothing. I have noticed for myself anyway, that I need some people time but I also need quiet alone time. If I can keep a healthy balance than I continue to be creative. The Caterpillar represents the social out in the world eating up stimulus and ideas. The Chrysalis in many ways represents that quiet time that I need to process all that I have consumed. I have come to terms with my feelings of having to always be producing to be of value. I had to get past my mindset that said I needed to be good enough to earn the attention or favor of others or even God. I have had to accept that my creativity goes through cyclic seasons. I have had to learn to guard the secret quiet space of my mind and heart. To not get so busy that there is no time to process or create. Resting and processing is part of the creative life cycle of an idea as well. 

The pet butterfly in my dream shows me what happens to an idea if I keep it to myself and don’t allow it to be free to soar. It dies and does not get the chance to inspire others and to reproduce. 

When I first create something there is a tendency to want to keep it to myself. To look at it over and over again. It represents a part of me. I have to decide if I will share that part of myself with others. It is easy to become critical as a creative person. To say to a creative thing, “I’m sorry you are just not good enough”. I have to push past the fear of exposing myself to the critique of others. It takes courage to release a creative endeavor and allow it to soar. I have to leave it in the hands of God. I have to let go of control at that point and realize it is part of His story written though me that now must take on a life of its own.  For the creative cycle to continue to be birthed in myself and in others I have to be willing to share my creation even with what I see as its flaws. Those very flaws are like foot prints others are able to follow. Its ok if its not totally perfect it is totally real and raw expression of my journey. As I bid it farewell, I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced along the way that I will carry on into future projects. I am thankful that my Abba Father is creative and I have been made in His image as a creative person to express His love to I release yet another idea into the winds of His Spirit. 

“I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!”                                   Philippians 1:6 (TPT)