The Butterfly

One day a small opening appeared on a cocoon. A man sat and watched the caterpillar for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gone as far as it could and could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and cut off the remaining bit of cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, withered 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 withered wings. It never was able to fly.

In his kindness and love he did not understand, what he did was restricting cocoon. He did not realize the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were the way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into the wings so that it would be ready to fly once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. However, his overlook at the cocoon could have helped the butterfly to protect itself.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. However, with the love many forget and do not allow the first bit of struggle. If a child’s life is build without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly.

At some point though we think we are flying, what we do is crawl. How many of us are crippled and would never accept it? Are we crawling, walking or flying?