The Butterfly

The Butterfly - One of the thought provoking stories from “Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul”. Probably the shortest story in the book… putting a very nice thought across.

A man found a cocoon. One day a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly 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 gotten as far as it could and go no farther. So the man decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bits of the cocoon. The butterfly could now emerge from the cocoon easily. But something was odd. The butterfly had a swollen body and 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 deformed wings. It was never able to fly.

What the 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 small opening of the cocoon are nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it is ready for flight as soon as it emerges from its cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If nature allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. Not only that, we could never fly.

-Author Unknown