The Butterfly Cocoon

A man was regularly observing a butterfly cocoon lying on his window sill. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force it's 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. 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. He continued to watch the butterfly, because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of it's life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

What he had done in his well intentioned kindness and haste, he did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get through the tiny opening were the natural way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into it's wings so that it would be ready for flight ONCE it achieved it's freedom from the cocoon.





All life demands struggle.Where there is no struggle,there is no strength.If everything is given to us in the easy way,we will become selfish,weak and insensitive to the real values of life.