Why Cocoon For A Butterfly?

It was yet another day as I sat besides my father. Seeing me sitting quiet, he smiled as if he knew the struggle that was going on within me. His pleasant gestures only prompted me to clarify all that was going in my mind. I asked him as to why do we have to go through hardships? Why can’t life come easy to us? He told me that all of us have to go through them because these hardships are like the ‘Polish’ that helps us emerge shinier.  The little girl within me was still not satisfied and I grudged, “only good things can make someone happier and look forward to working more (and eventually become better)". How can difficulties ever make you better?  Upon hearing this, he narrated me a beautiful story to give me the insight as to why are struggles necessary and how do they make you a better and a beautiful person. Here is how the story goes:

There was once a person who found a cocoon. He waited each day to see the emergence of the pretty butterfly out of it. One day he was amazed as he saw the little creature struggling its way out of its shell. Ah! He was so happy. Several hours passed and the insect kept its struggle on, to come out of the tiny hole.  Then it stopped making any more efforts and lay quiet. The man thought to help the little creature. He snipped the remaining bit of cocoon for the butterfly so that it could come out of it without any more struggle. The butterfly came out easily without making any more struggles. However, the emerged butterfly had tiny shrivelled wings and a swollen body.  The man waited to see its wings fully spread and its body to contract. But alas! None of this happened. Neither there were wings nor could it fly. On the contrary, the tiny creature had to spend the rest of its life crawling about with its swollen body. 

The man’s act of haste and kindness had no idea that he was only spoiling the entire life of butterfly. He could not understand that the struggle out of the cocoon was God’s way to help the creature to force out the liquid of its body into its wings so that it could emerge as a beautiful creature that was ready to flutter around and enjoy this beautiful world.

My Dad continued and said, “Struggles are God’s way to help us spread our wings of wisdom and live a happier life. We will be crippled without hardships. We will have to crawl away our entire life and we will never be able to FLY.”

I had understood yet another perspective of life, and realised that struggles are exactly what we need to “LIVE” our lives... to emerge as beautiful, strong and mature human beings.