Emma and the butterflies
Together with her family, Emma lives in a house that is far too small. Like her friends, she would also like to live in a larger house, but unfortunately, that is not possible. Her parents are very poor, and they can barely make ends meet from the money dad earns from the farmer. She is often sad because she worries about the future of her parents and herself. She would love for them to be happy, but she wouldn’t know how to make that happen. Not that she’s always sad. On the contrary, her parents are very kind to her, and they try to make it as cosy as possible with the little money they have. When it’s her birthday, Papa always makes a nice gift for her. She proudly shows it to the others, but every now and then one of her friends makes a mean remark about the gift she is so proud of. That always hurts her, but she never talks about it with her parents.
The house she lives in is on the edge of the forest and Emma loves to walk and watch nature.
One day Emma walks dreamily through the forest and does not realize that she is walking too far into the forest. She’s lost. Wherever she looks, she can’t discover a landmark. Tired, she sits down on a tree trunk and tries to remember which path she had taken.
Suddenly she discovers a caterpillar. Not just any caterpillar, no one with beautiful colours that sparkle in the sun. She looks at him admiringly and feels her heart warm with joy.
Suddenly, the caterpillar begins to speak to her, “Honey, I see you’re sad. Can I help you to ease your worries and make you happy? Just walk with me and I’ll show you something very beautiful. A very special field. Where caterpillars turn into fairytale butterflies.’
Emma looks at him in amazement but decides to follow him. In the middle of the forest, they enter an enchanting clearing. There are numerous colorful flowers and butterflies are abundant. She had never seen so many together. They flutter around happily, filling the air with their enchanting beauty. Emma can’t believe her happiness and the sad feeling inside her heart turns into joy.
The caterpillar that had accompanied her to the beautiful clearing and had now also turned into a beautiful butterfly, accompanies her back home after a while.
When Emma walks into the path to the village, she notices that a lot has changed. Emma is so happy that she has completely forgotten that her parents might be worried. After all, she has been away from home for hours. Her sadness has faded, and her parents are pleasantly surprised when they see their daughter so sparkling with happiness. They notice that somehow a change has taken place in their little girl. She is no longer sad, and she is beaming with happiness.
Emma tells her parents about her adventure with the beautiful butterflies. ” I’ve never seen such beautiful butterflies,” she says excitedly.
The renewed strength and joy Emma feels continues to this day, and she helps her parents wherever she can. With renewed ideas and clever hunches, Emma has improved their standard of living. She not only takes care of herself and her parents, but she also helps others. She teaches them that they can fight poverty. It does take energy, patience, and self-confidence. Self-confidence that some of them need to learn to build first.
Emma has never been able to discover the clearing in the middle of the forest again, but she is convinced that this special place is somewhere. Maybe if you are very sad you will also discover such a special place in your environment. A place that, like Emma, makes you realize that life is far too beautiful and too short to be sad. You will see that you too get strength from it to become happy again.