A little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it.
The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.
One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.
The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.
At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn't break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!
The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, got it and and then came back. He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!
As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly's wings would expand.
But neither happened!
The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never could fly…
What the boy in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature'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 its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If nature allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
I’ve always loved this story. It serves as a great reminder to keep things in perspective.
Thank you Bill. I just noticed this comment from you. Indeed this is very inspirational story.
Its really an inspiring story.
Thank you Bill and Ankit. Glad to know you both loved the story 🙂
Loved it! It a great story to share. We can often be in a hurry for many things and we do tend to screw things up in life because of it. It is a great lesson for making changes in ones life and for parents!
Thank you for you Jason. It indeed is a great lesson as you rightly said. Appreciate you taking time to share your thoughts.
I absolutely love this story. Â The way that ‘forced’ transformation is so critical to the process of change and development, and how without the necessary ‘restriction’ that forces those wings to develop, we’re deprived of the opportunity for growth, by learning and doing for ourselves.. It totally puts into context why I was always a child that wanted to learn for myself, rather than be told the answers. Â Thanks for sharing this story!
Thank you Rehman. Appreciate your awesome commentary!
really very motivation story.it gives us very great lesson that change is the law of nature…thanx for sharing this motivation.
What an inspirational story! Kind of remind me to the young me who always wanted everything to be quick and instant, despised anything that required hard struggle.
Hi Kumar Gauraw,
These article is very motivated story. I loved this post. Thanks for sharing this important post.