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                                  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. For Discussion or Writing: 1. What would you have done, seeing a butterfly struggling to get out of the cocoon? 2. How do you feel about what this man did? Was he “doing the best that he could, given what he knew, or didn’t know”? Do you see this action as a mistake? 3. Give the meaning of these lines: “Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.” Explain these two statements in your own words, and give examples from real peoples’ lives of each, your own, or a family member’s, or someone else you know well.