A man found a cocoon.
One day a small opening appeared so he sat and watched a butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making progress. It appeared as if it had gone as far as it could go and could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly could now emerge from the cocoon easily, yet 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, it's wings would expand and enlarge to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Yet 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 restriction of the 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.
There are many lessons to be learned simply by observing nature. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If nature and spiritual law allowed us to go through life without any obstacles, we would remain crippled, lack depth and understanding, and our chances to grow and evolve would remain stagnate. We would not be as strong as we could be.
Not only that, we could never fly.
