Viral Storytelling with The Story Lady, Ronda Del Boccio

This is a story from the book I’m working on right now, which I will have completed by the end of the day.  I have made a point of saying on 3 different live calls that I would have it done. 

That is the power of accountability.  I said on 2 of Mike Litman’s Greatness Nation calls (free morning motivation calls) that I would have it done.  I also told the Entrepreneurial Authoring clients on one of our 3 weekly group mentoring calls.

Now I’m telling you all right on my blog.  That’s accountability!

Anyway, click on the title iif you would like a Sneak Peek Edition of The Kama Sutra of Storytelling: Positioning, Power and Profit.

The story below is NOT in the Sneak Peek.  It is something extra for you all.  Please let it touch your heart and spirit.

 To Dance With The Breeze
And Flirt With The Trees
A Tale of Transformation

by Ronda Del Boccio, The Story lady of Storyation.com
 
 Sandy the caterpillar crawls around on branches, eats leaves, and in general is quite a small creature in a very big world.  But Sandy holds a secret deep in her heart.  She looks out at the arms of the trees bobbing in the breeze and wishes she could live a big life.  The breeze goes where it will and flirts with the trees and all living things.  Sandy wishes that she could find some way to dance with the breeze and flirt with the trees.

There are enormous predators all around her.  Birds want to eat her and spiders want to ensnare her first — and then eat her.  She must be careful, and she must keep herself hidden most of the time. 

Sandy, like all caterpillars, spends a lot of her time being scared and the rest of her day simply getting by from moment to moment.  She knows she could be eaten alive at any moment, and she does not want to become a bird’s breakfast or a spider’s supper.

She does not often stop to think about the way all caterpillars live their lives, in exactly the same way she does, just getting by from moment to moment.  Because if she stops to think about that, she becomes sad, and if she thinks about it even longer, she becomes very depressed indeed. 

Not only that, but if she lets down her guard, she will not be safe.
 One day, she is sitting on a branch, secluded and safe for the moment, munching on a leaf.  A flash of color catches her attention.  It looks like a piece of the sky flitting and fluttering around freely.  “How I wish I could be free like that beautiful blue creature,” she sighs, “but I am only a lowly caterpillar, and I can never fly and be free.”

 She does not know that all caterpillars feel exactly the same way, longing for freedom but feeling trapped in their circumstances.  She lives in her ordinary world but dreams of being extraordinary. 

 Finally one day Sandy pulls her courage together and decides to talk about this with one of her friends.  “I have seen those too,” her friend Flora tells her.  ”they are beautiful!”

 “I wish I could fly free like that fluttering flier,” Sandy says.

 “Such crazy thoughts you have!  We can never be like that.”

 “How wonderful it must be to dance with the breeze and flirt with the trees.”
 Flora scowls at her.  “Stop thinking about it.  You will make yourself crazy dreaming of what can never be yours.  There is no sense in it.”

 Sandy feels sick at heart.  But as much as she wishes things were different, she realizes that Flora is right.  She tries hard not to think about the flutterer, but then one day, she sees another one.  This one is not blue like the sky, but orange with a bit of yellow.  It looks like a winged droplet of sunlight dancing with the breeze.
 Sandy’s heart swells and she thinks she might burst if she does not at least talk to the breeze dancer.  “Excuse me,” she says in a tiny, shaky voice.

The gorgeous flyer lights on the branch near Sandy.  She is lit from behind by the sun, which gives her a mystical aura.  This creature of the air is even more magnificent up close than from a distance.  So spellbound by the golden glory before her is Sandy that she can hardly speak.

“Hello friend,” says the flyer.

Sandy takes a deep breath and blurts out, “I wish I could dance with the breeze like you do.”

The golden vision laughs warmly and flits in a circle, gently brushing Sandy as she passes.  “The power is within you!” she sings in a melodious voice.
“What do you mean?”  Sandy asks.

“You’ll find out when the time is right,” the flutterer replies.  Then, like a fleeting ray of sunlight, she is gone.

Sandy sits on her branch, scarcely daring to breathe.  She wonders if she truly saw what she saw…”Or was I only daydreaming and wishing it were so?”  Soon she decides that she must get back to being practical.

Gloom like an overcast day heavy with a coming storm squashes Sandy’s sun-kissed memory.  She has no notion that deep in the heart of every caterpillar is the same longing – the same dream of being so much more.

Why?

Because nobody shares their dream for fear that they will be scorned or shunned.
And if they do become bold and dare to share the dream that burns sun-hot within them, the others put them right back in their place, where they belong.  The other caterpillars tell the daring dreamer, “You are crazy.  Such a life will never happen for us.  We are only caterpillars.”

Sandy remembers what the golden dancer told her and wonders what she meant by, “The power is within you,” and “You will know when the time is right.”   What power?  What time?  Is this true, or was the breeze dancer merely playing with Sandy and making a game of her emotions?

Sandy says out loud, to no one in particular, “I wish I knew what power I have within me.  I don’t think I have anything special inside me.  In fact, I KNOW I do not have a special power.  I am just like every other caterpillar.”

Just then, she sees a small striped flutterer whose dance is not so grand as the sky colored dancer and not so mystical as the sun colored dancer.  This one flits and rests, flits and rests, and then he perches on a branch and fans his wings for a long time. 

As Sandy watches, the flutter, who is red like a summer sunset, leaps off the branch and turns to the open sky. 

“Wait–please!” Sandy calls.  “I want to talk to you.”  This one reminds her of someone she knows, but she cannot imagine why.

He flits close to Sandy, stronger now than before.  “I cannot talk to you right now.  I have worked very hard and I am so hungry!  I must get something to eat.”  And away he flies without another word or even a backward glance.

“But I NEED to know…” She does not bother to finish what she wanted to say.  He is gone and she will not get her answer.  He reminds her so much of someone, but she cannot think who. “How can it be that this magnificent creature reminds me of anyone I know?  I do not know anyone special like him.  I only know caterpillars.”

A few days later, Sandy is munching on a leaf and dreaming of flying when something stirs within her.  This feeling of urgency frightens her.  It is new and quite uncomfortable.  She goes to a safe place and dangles from a branch, wondering what is happening to her. 

No longer will she crawl on branches and no longer munch on leaves.  Something terrifying is taking place without her permission, and she does not understand what it is or where it will take her.  Sandy considers screaming as she realizes that she cannot control anything.  All she knows is that her life will never again be the same.  “What is happening to me?  Somebody please tell me.”

Nobody answers.  Sandy feels as if she is falling into a void.  She is leaving a world in which everything might have been hum-drum, but at least it all made sense.  Now
She is moving into a world of chaos where there is nothing familiar.
  Sandy does not know that every caterpillar who does not get eaten alive or die in despair experiences exactly what she is going through right now.  She wonders if this is what it feels like to die, because nothing in her life has prepared her for this out-of-control feeling of being swallowed whole.  All she knows is that her familiar world closes in tightly around her until there is only blackness.

After a time, she becomes accustomed to the darkness.  She does not even think about the world outside her, because for her, it does not exist.  She is in a cocoon of change.  Still she does not understand what is happening to her, but somehow she comes to realize that this is exactly how it is supposed to happen –
Whatever IT is.

A little more time passes and Sandy realizes that she is becoming someone different.  She is not a caterpillar anymore.  Even though she does not know what she is becoming, Sandy no longer fears the transformation through which she is moving.  “How strange that I felt so afraid before, but now I am at peace.  Everything is as it should be.”

Sandy laughs at herself.  “I wish I understood all this.  How can I be in the midst of chaos and yet feel at peace?”

One moment, just as she is drifting into sleep, Sandy remembers what the golden breeze dancer said to her.  “The power is within you.”

“I think maybe now I know what she meant,” Sandy decides.  “I do have the power, even though I do not understand it right now.  It rose up within me and guided me to make this cocoon.  I know this power will continue to guide me through whatever comes next.”

Her last thought before she falls asleep is, “I wonder what will happen next.”
Finally one day, Sandy is overcome with the urge to get out of her chamber of transformation.  It is time to move into her new life, whatever that may be.  Sandy knows what she must do.  She takes her only way out of her cocoon of change.
So she eats her way out, devouring the world that has sheltered and protected her.  She cannot stay in this tiny world any longer.  The chamber that had nurtured her transformation now nourishes her, and she begins to understand what she is becoming.

She fills her flaccid wings with the nectar of life and feels them grow stronger as they fill.  At first she is weak, but as her wings grow in size and ability, she begins to feel a little bit stronger.  Soon she flexes her wings that will soon empower her to dance on the breeze and flirt with the trees.

 At last the time comes and she is ready to fly for the first time.  “This is hard work,” she says, “but I do not mind at all.”  She begins like the red butterfly, flit, rest, flit, rest.  The open sky calls to her, and as soon as she can, she must taste life’s sweet nectar in the centers of glorious flowers.

Flit, rest.  Flit, rest.  A caterpillar is on the branch just below, looking up at her.  It is Flora.  “You will be like me one day,” she calls out as she flies away.”
“How silly you are to say such a thing,” Flora says with a snarl.  “I will never be so beautiful and powerful as you.”

Sandy hears the snap of a bird’s beak as she flutters away sample the life’s sweet nectar.  She has come through the time of chaos into a new life.  Freedom is hers as she dances on the breeze and flirts with the trees.

“I never knew about the delicious beauty of flowers and how big the sky truly is until now.”  Indeed the nectar nourishes her.  She likes the taste of red flowers the best, but yellow ones are also luscious.

How wonderful it feels to flit and float and flutter, to feel the kiss of sunlight and the cress of the air on her wings.  She catches her reflection in a sparkling stream.  Her wings are violet with stripes of sunshine gold.   “Could I truly be so magnificent?” she wonders, in awe.  “I never knew this is who I was meant to be.  It is even better than I ever dreamed to dance on the breeze and flirt with the trees!”

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Follow your bliss!

Ronda
I ask 3 questions that empower you to tap into your passion, develop strong and healthy business relationships, and rocket your profits.  How?   Claim over $300 in gifts and find out at…
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