Life is a personal journey. Others can help and support along the way however, they cannot do the work for us. When they rescue us, we never learn the skills required to save ourself when things get tough. Sometimes life has an odd way of putting the challenges we require in our path. But, it is important to notice what we learn from each experience — the good as well as the bad. The following true story of unknown origins explains the importance of struggles very well.
A man finds a butterfly cocoon, which develops a small hole. Over several hours, he notices the butterfly struggling to force its body through the small hole.
After a period, the man noticed that the butterfly appeared stop progressing. In trying to be helpful, the man decides to cut the cocoon open. The butterfly emerged easily however its body was swollen and it had small-shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly expecting at any moment the wings to enlarge and expand enough to support the body.
Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around the ground. It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not realise was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle by the butterfly to break free was nature’s way of forcing the fluid out of the butterfly’s body and into its wings so that it is ready for flight when the butterfly emerged.
Like the butterfly’s journey out of the cocoon, the struggles, we overcome help to develop our strengths needed for later life. They allow us to overcome obstacles that would otherwise cripple us. Without them we are unable to fly.
All our journeys are unique experiences and remember, there are no maps.
Nice story!! I took the butterfly example too, in one of my recent posts ( https://penpalblogs.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/metamorphosis/ ) 🙂 .. keep inspiring!
You learn something new everyday! I love this way of looking at struggle.
It is so true. Glad you liked it.
It is the struggle that strengthens our wings. Thank you for the reminder.
I love the butterfly story. It’s such a good analogy for the struggles we face. Something I’ll remember, I think. (And I didn’t actually know that about butterflies!) 🙂
I didn’t realise it when I first heard it either.
Thank you for sharing this analogy! I will remember it and share it with the students I teach when an opportunity arises.
Its so simple and powerful. Glad to share the love around. We can all learn from each other.