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 squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
 Then it stopped as if it couldn't go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. 
He took a pair of scissors and
 snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
 The butterfly emerged easily but 
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it, 
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
 and expand enough to support the body. 
Neither happened! 
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life
 crawling around.
 It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness
 and haste did not understand: 
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
 required by the butterfly to get through the opening
 was a way of forcing the fluid from the body 
into the wings so that it would be ready 
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly 
what we need in our lives.
 Don't accept short cut roads even when things are tough. Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
 We will not be as strong as we could have been
 and we would never fly.


Dedicated to all my friends who are having hard times.