A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small
opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly
for several hours as it struggled to force its body
through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop
making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten
as far as it could and it could go no farther.

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took
a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of
the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it
had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because
he expected that, at any moment, the wings would
enlarge and expand to be able to support the body,
which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest
of its life crawling around with a swollen body and

shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not
understandwas that the restricting cocoon and the
struggle required for the butterfly to get through
the tiny opening were nature's way of forcing fluid
from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it
would be ready for flight once it achieved its
freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.
If nature allowed us to go through our life without
any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be
as strong as what we could have been.

And we could never fly...

Anonymous