We all struggle with something from time to time.
Though how many of us actually honour that struggle and acknowledge that it is making us better at what we do?
If we don’t struggle at the gym, we don’t become stronger or fitter.
if we don’t stare at that white screen with a flashing cursor, pulling our hair out because we have writer’s block we won’t know what to do when it hits us.
Or what to do to work past it.
This reminds me of the parable of the butterfly
One day while walking through his garden, a man found a chrysalis hanging delicately from a branch. As he admired it, it started to move and a small opening appeared. The man enchanted, watched for hours as the Chrysalis moved frantically, the butterfly struggling to free itself from its confinement through the small opening. Then almost as suddenly the butterfly stopped, appearing as if it had gotten as far as it could go, and could go no further. The man feeling sorry for it decided to help the butterfly, and with a small knife he gently slit open the chrysalis allowing the butterfly to emerge easily.
The butterfly broke free, only to wilt over in a completely motionless state in his hand. Its tiny swollen body and shriveled wings withered and deformed. The man continued to watch expectantly, waiting for the moment the wings would unfurl, expand and enlarge enough to support the still limp body, enabling the butterfly to get up, but he waited in vain. Instead the butterfly spend the remainder of its short existence, crawling awkwardly, dragging its fragile body and shriveled wings and never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness, goodwill and haste failed to understand. The restrictive chrysalis and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening, is nature’s way of forcing the fluid from the swollen body into its wings. So that, the wings can then unfold and enable the butterfly to fly once it achieves its freedom.
We need struggles in our lives, if life would not contain obstacles it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been and would never be able to fly.
– Author Unknown
What struggles should you be honouring?
