The story of the butterfly

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.
        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.