Ragwort & Cinnebar

Walking through the park near our home the other day I noticed a clump of Ragwort behaving strangely. It isn't usual to see it growing in a public park at all, but is so striking with it's bright yellow flowers it tends to stand out.

But this ragwort caught my attention for a different reason as is wasn't as bright as it usually is, it had missing flower heads, and knowing how toxic it is, that immediately made me curious. When I got closer, I realised it was covered in Cinnebar Moth caterpillars.

They really are quite striking, and nothing like their transformed selves as slate and red moths. Although they are most similar to wasp bodies, they really do remind me of the sand worm from Beetlejuice, and I don't quite know why.

As I stood and watched them, I realised how much they were enjoying the ragwort, in fact that's where they usually make their home and it's their main source of food. Seeing their black and yellow striped bodies, it's hard to imagine that they could be the same creature as their adult self.

(photo taken by me of a Cinnebar Moth)

But this serves as yet another reminder of how incredible nature is. Watching them, I couldn't help thinking about the times in my own life when everything had fallen apart before it came back together. One of the most extraordinary things I've learned is that caterpillars don't just sprout wings. Inside the chrysalis, they mostly disintegrate into a kind of cellular soup, before being rebuilt into something entirely different. Much like humans when we've been through trauma, there is a stage that many go through when it feels like we're in the soup, in the thick of all the messiness while we reconstruct the life we want on the other side. 

Nature helps me realise that change isn't something to fear. It's something every living thing moves through in its own way. That understanding eventually led me to Forest Therapy, and it's one of the reasons I now feel so privileged to guide others as they navigate change in their own lives.

Change is our only true constant in life. Nature is in a constant state of change, and we are nature.