Native american stories
section 6

The Butterfly Nation
Salish

     A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.  One day a small opening appeared and he sat and watched the butterfly as it struggled for several hours to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress.  It appeared that it had gotten as far as it could.
     The man decided to help the butterfly, so he snipped off the remaining bit of cocoon.  The butterfly then emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings
     The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that at any moment the wings would expand and be able to support the body, which contract in time.
     Neither happened!!!  In fact the butterfly spent its whole life crawling around wtih a swollen body and shriveled wings.  It was never able to fly.
     What the man, in kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get through the tiny opening were Creator's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved freedom.
     Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.  If Creator allowed us to go through life without strugles, it would cripple us.  We would not be as strong as we could have been.
     And.....we would never fly.

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