The Butterfly

One day as a small opening appeared on a cocoon,

a man sat for several hours watching the butterfly

struggle 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 further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.

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 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 understand was that the restricting cocoon

and the struggle required for the butterfly

to get through the tiny opening was nature's way

of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into it's wings.

Then the butterfly would be ready for flight

once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.

If we were allowed to go through our life

without any obstacles, it would cripple us.

We would not be as strong as what we could be.

We could never fly.