i can’t find the original source anywhere which kills me! found via pinterest
This quote reminded me of Morton the Caterpillar by Davey Rocker. We listen to this album in the car all the time. It is a totally encouraging and sweet song about a little caterpillar whose parents believe in him. Our boys love it, but I think I love it even more than they do.
I feel like it’s easy to feel like a caterpillar sometimes. All awkward, slow, and silly looking. They start out as a completely different form than they end up. How easy it is to only see how you are in the present, not knowing how things will end up.
I have been going through a metamorphosis of my own over the past 6 years. My life looks nothing like it did as a 20 year old newly married girl. After college, I embarked on any number of creative endeavors. I couldn’t discern which ideas were good ones, and the world seemed like my oyster. Being a naturally creative and somewhat spunky lady (as I’m sure you are, if you’ve found a kindred in Tiny Twig), I learned how to make my own lampwork glass beads, I did day-of wedding coordinating, I tried my hand at sewing kid’s quilts, and I spent endless hours progressing into a professional photographer. And, because I’ve always found business highly intriguing and another extension of creativity, I naturally tried to turn every new hobby into a burgeoning career. It was not always pretty. It was often awkward and slow and silly looking.
Tell me I’m not the only one.
It would be easy to say I failed at so many things. I wasted so many hours on talents that didn’t produce fruit. I spent energy and focus that could have been used to scrub.the.toilets.
But, now–since finding my voice and the message I’m passionate about spreading (More passion! Less fuss!), I can look back and see how all those creative false starts and good tries really linked together to bring me to where I am today.
I still use those hard won skills every day here at Tiny Twig–and in my “real life” as a wife, mother, and woman. I have a breadth of knowledge that allows me to converse with all kinds of creatives. My mission and vision is being whittled down through all the things I now know aren’t for me.
It seems to me, I’m still like a caterpillar. I can’t believe that blogging is my “end game”. I imagine that all this silly looking and awkward growth will end up serving some other purpose. But, I’m okay with where I am. I don’t know where I’ll end up, and I don’t know what the end result will look like. But, I do know that caterpillars possess their own kind of wild beauty. That body–how does it move? That patterned skin–why does it look like that? That voracious appetite–how will it serve the caterpillar later?
Do you ever feel all slow and silly looking? Is your day to day more awkward than graceful right now? What do you see as a failure from your past that may indeed just be a stepping stone to something bigger down the road?
I’ll go first. I used to make a business plan (and start dreaming of branding and marketing!) for any idea that popped in my head. Time consuming. But, it helped me learn about so many types of businesses and I learned why most of my ideas aren’t feasible at all (better to know now than later!).
look at what my sweet little caterpillar (Noah, 5) made for his preschool “star of the week”.
so awkward, yet 100% precious and good.