Struggle

In quite a few of my readings lately, not surprisingly the theme of struggle has come up.

I remember the oft told story of the butterfly struggling from its cocoon – a man comes across a butterfly struggling to force its body from the small hole in its cocoon. When the butterfly seemed too exhausted and paused, the man thought he would be kind and helpful and gently sliced open the cocoon. What he didn’t realize is that butterfly’s struggle was nature’s way of forcing the fluid from its wings so that it could take flight once it broke through the cocoon. This rescued butterfly never learnt to fly… and now we say, from this we can learn that struggles are exactly what we need in our life to become stronger, to give us the wings to fly…

But of course, I'm not talking to outsiders, I'm talking to the exhausted butterflies. They would very much like someone with a sharp implement to come and cut across their struggles, and don't want to hear about wings and flight - they want to hear about peace and stability. And I commiserate with them. We've all struggled and wanted someone to rescue us, and the thought of rescue is so much more appealing than pushing every erg of energy we possess into getting out of the cocoon/hole/trap ourselves.

And all I can do is lend moral support through the struggle and tell them that I've seen others survive, that bursting through fear to the next stage of life is a life long lesson, and at the end, we do indeed gain flight.

But I want the butterflies to know that I feel for them...