Dropping A Shoe

Spiritual Story by Serge Danilov

The caterpillar wasn't happy. The leaves on his tree were half-wilted, brownish, and tasted like brownish half-wilted leaves. The weather was cold and windy, and he didn't like it at all. And for whatever feathery reason, the neighborhood birds seemed to frequent his particular tree much more often than all the other trees combined, so even on a sunny day he could not stretch his forty fuzzy feet, turn his belly towards the sun, and get himself some dark-green tan. And the caterpillar wasn't happy at all. In fact, with all the nature against him, he felt miserable and sorry for himself.

But one day the caterpillar woke up with a vague but strangely pleasant feeling. Something wonderful stirred inside him, and as he grabbed onto that feeling, he decided that starting today he will not feel sorry for himself. No, sir, he will not. He will feel good about himself, no matter what the weather is, or how threatening the birds are, or how wilted the leaves.

The days went by and he realized that these things were not bothering him as much as they did before. And it felt good. No, no, scratch that, not just good. He felt exhilarated. He felt full of energy. He felt safe even when birds were flapping their wings just a couple of branches away. The leaves seemed a lot greener and juicier than usual, and the weather warmer than yesterday. He felt good about his body. He was neither too thin nor too fat � just perfect. He felt expansive. His vision became so incredibly clear, as if a muddy film came off his eyes. And he sensed some sort of electric-like buzzing in his flexible long body which, frankly, felt quite good.

At first he thought he was going nuts. You know, just a little bit. Maybe some hormonal imbalance or something. But somehow it all felt like it was supposed to be this way. There was just one teeny problem. There was a tiny anxiousness in the caterpillar's heart. Things were all just too good now � the abundant food, the newly found safety, the happiness which somehow felt natural � and the overall great way he felt about himself. Somewhere in the back of his tail there was a feeling that this paradise could not last forever. A shoe was going to drop. He didn't know which shoe, and where it was going to drop, but he positively felt that it will drop. And he was apprehensive. Just a little bit.

As he was dozing off in the sun after enjoying a plump leaf, a strange creature appeared right next to him, out of nowhere. She had a body similar to his, but much more shapely and adorned with colors, and there were two brilliant wings attached to that body. The creature was breathtaking. The caterpillar's jaw dropped and a small piece of the leaf fell out. The creature opened her perfectly shaped mouth and said, "How are you feeling, dear Caterpillar?" Her voice was so melodious that the caterpillar became positively enchanted. He pinched himself (gingerly) on the belly to snap out of it and said, "Ahh, uhmm, ehhh, well, I'm fine, thank you." He thought a bit and, for some reason feeling an affinity with this creature and that he could trust her, added, "But I have this feeling..." The creature somehow seemed to know his thoughts, as if she was a trained psychologist, because she immediately picked up his sentence, "...of anxiousness? You feel great, but there is some apprehension, like it's all just too good to be true, right? You feel like a shoe is going to drop. Don't you?" By now the caterpillar gave up on pulling his hanging jaw back up and just covered his mouth to prevent more bits of the leaf from falling out. He mumbled something like "yes", or perhaps it was "maybe", or even "what are you, a destiny's child?"; we can't tell, for it wasn't too clear. But he wanted to know. And finally, excited, in a very loud whisper he asked, letting all the half-chewed pieces of his green lunch fly out of his mouth, "Is it? Is it going to drop?!" The creature smiled kindly and said, "Yes. It is going to drop." "And then what?!" demanded the caterpillar loudly as if his life depended on the answer. "Oh, you'll see!" said the creature, suddenly lowering her beautiful wings, rising into the air, and flitting away so gracefully like no bird ever could.

He was still thinking about that "You'll see," when a clear liquid started coming out of his mouth, quickly hardening into a thin shiny thread, and he felt a sudden urge to spin it around himself. And as he did, one thought played over and over in his head, "The shoe is dropping! THE SHOE IS DROPPING!!" But then, all of a sudden, as he very soon found himself suspended in a cocoon, the anxiousness just evaporated. Somehow he knew that everything was going to be alright. "So that's what it was all about!" he thought, slipping into a well-deserved sleep. And as he did, a dream began to unfold. He dreamt of strange, beautiful creatures. Creatures with perfect bodies, brilliant wings, and melodious voices. Creatures with freedom to fly.