BUTTERFLY AND COCOON

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 this 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 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...