The butterfly net that wanted to catch the dream

A BUTTERFLY NET had once caught so many butterflies that had a really hard time finding new species to add to her collection. So talented was she even, that there was not a single butterfly that could escape her to be found in the whole forest, or one that she had not already caught and set free.

One day, she happened to overhear a poet reciting a beautiful poem about dreams in the moonlight. After giving him her undivided attention, she wondered: “is it really that difficult to catch these so called ‘dreams’ that even I wouldn’t be able to?”.

Next day, she set a new goal for herself: she would go dream-hunting, and as soon as she had caught a dream with her net, she would show everyone that there was truly nothing that would escape her. So it happened. After packing her belongings, she went out in the streets to look for dreams. Only a few moments later, however, she got troubled as she didn’t know where to start from.

She walked, and walked, until at some point, the clouds got heavy and rain started pouring on her. She got soaking wet and hid inside a tree hollow where she started wondering whether her quest was futile, as dreams are often rumored to be totally out of our reach. As soon as the rain abated, however, she got excited to see a rainbow form behind the tall mountains on the horizon. “The rainbow’s colors look like taken straight from some dream!”, the net exclaimed and went after it.

After many hours of walking, she reached the mountain’s foothills. She, then, climbed the mountainside, thinking that the rainbow was to be seen behind the top. The higher she climbed, however, the more it looked like it eluded her. In the end, and as soon as she reached the top, the rainbow dissolved in front of her unbelieving eyes and she was left to wonder with the sky’s blue.

“Did I just lose the dream from my hands?”, she wondered. So sad did she even get, that the started crying with no stop.

Many hours later, and after the Sun had set and the Moon was to be seen in the sky, a wise owl flew over and sat on a tree branch close to her to console her. “It’s no use crying, because as soon as you climb down the tree, more dreams are to be found waiting for you”, the owl advised her. And so, our good butterfly net dried her last tears and climbed down the mountainside.

She was then met with a fisherman, who was carrying a load of fish in his arms. “He’ll turn me into a fish net!”, the butterfly net exclaimed and ran as fast as she could to escape him. Yet the fisherman was even faster. As soon as he caught her, he tore her net apart with caution, glued feathers and shiny pearls on her, then went straight to his home where he hanged her above a baby’s cradle, as his family had just welcomed a newborn.

“You are no butterfly net from now on, but rather… a dream trap!”, the fisherman told her and she got very excited to see the baby smile at her. She, then, lulled it to sleep and dreamed along. So slept away was she even by the baby’s dreams, that from that day on they both dreamed together.