As was stated previously, Lilinih is three times on the arbor. She is special in many ways.***
She is the first - the first to be brought into the house and the first to be crafted into the fence.
***
She is my muse. She continually inspires me to reach for more, to go beyond the "safe" boundaries that basically say "don't be silly". Funny how circumstances don't confine a person as much as the feeling that if you do something out of "the norm" someone will think you are silly. There is a song that I keep forgetting that I like:
***
I want to live like there’s no tomorrow
I want to dance like no one’s around
I want to sing like nobody’s listening
Before I lay my body down
I want to give like I have plenty
I want to love like I’m not afraid
I want to be the man I was meant to be
I want to be the way I was made
- Chris Tomlin
***
And she herself has a muse. Her muse, a butterfly, is named Chomp. At this point you are probably asking yourself "don't butterflies have whimsical names?" Yes butterflies take on whimsical names when they transform. But Chomp has decided to keep his caterpillar name as a kind of muse, an inspiration if you will.
***
You see Chomp was very famous. When Chomp was a caterpillar he wanted more than anything to be recognized as special. So he set out do something that no other caterpillar had ever done. As you can imagine there are many, many things that no caterpillar has ever done, so Chomp just had to choose something that was on the list but not completely beyond his reach.
***
He crossed off: going to the moon (no way to prove it), writing the great American novel (no other caterpillar can read), learning to play basketball (more like learning to be squished), being in the movies (overdone), becoming a rock star (he actually did this and had one song (Caterpillar Song - Korpus Kristy and the Skinwalkers also did a version) but the other caterpillars were not impressed - seems that their little ears just don't have a very wide range).***
Finally he hit on something he might be able to do that would possibly impress his peers: dancing. You may think that all those legs would be hard to control and indeed they are (myself, I get confused with 2 legs and a line dance). But once they all get going in rhythm it is actually quite impressive.
***
Chomp became very famous. Every little pillar had to learn the moves, "rolling and flailing", "kicking and tapping" and of course the "chorus line". He started a craze in spite of the older caterpillars chiding them with words like "shameful", "oh, grow up" and worst of all "silly pillars".
***
And then it happened. Everyone knew it was coming but somehow it seemed that Chomp would never have to go into the cocoon (they call it "going dark"). The days went by and all the little pillars waited for Chomp to emerge.
***
When he did they all cheered and danced vigorously showing Chomp the latest new steps - the fanciest one they named after him: "ChompDown". He laughed and jumped onto a leaf to give them a little thrill with his dancing. But to every one's horror, his feet did not respond the same, he stumbled,he swayed, he fell over... he was all wings.
***
Disheartened, the pillars wandered away one by one with grumbles of "What's the point", "I guess I should grow up", "I'm just a silly pillar". Tears ran down Chomps face. All the practice, all the struggle and sacrifice for naught. Chomp had gone from champ to chump.
***
Chomp wandered away, ashamed to face his fans. He flew far, he flew where no caterpillar could find him - high in the Rockies where no trees grow. It was there he had his mountain top experience - where else?
***
Up there without trees he found that he was very visible to birds. They swooped and dived at him. But he found that if he lifted a leg here, swiveled a segment there, dance motions he had taught himself, he could fly in such a way that the birds could not guess which way he would go next.
***
He flew back to his friends to share his discovery. Most ignored him, having been assimilated into the more practical "live to eat" philosophy. To the few who did listen, he told them that there are things that carry over into the next life and that it is in the caterpillar stage that they need to learn to dance because it cannot be learned in the air.
***
They listened but when he tried to teach them the steps, they saw how clumsy he was and proceeded to eat the leaf out from under him. Chomp tried many times in many ways after that but always it would come down to a demonstration, at which point they would laugh at him and go back to eating leaves.
***
These days Chomp wanders around avoiding birds and looking for any sign that a caterpillar might have an "inkling" - a bouncy step, a rhythmic sway. It is then that he gently persuades the young pillar to take another step, and another.
***
Lilinih has learned well from Chomp. She saw the little steps I had taken, a little carving here, a doodle there and whispered in my ear to try some more - "sure they will think you are silly but seriously, what does that matter in the grandest scheme of things?".
***
We muse each other into being all that we can be. And Lilinih tells me that even though there is no welding in the spiritual realm - allowing the muse to grow will come in very handy.
