The Butterfly Struggle
(The Man And The Butterfly Cocoon)

A Moral Story About Life and the Lessons of Struggle

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.

butterfly struggling to lift rock
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.


I have asked for strength… and life has provided me with hardships, in order to make me strong.

I have asked for wisdom… and life has provided me with problems to solve.

I have asked for prosperity… and life has provided me with a brain, and muscles in order to work.

I have asked for the capacity to fly… and life has provided me with obstacles to overcome.

I have asked for love… and life has provided me with people to help in their problems.

I have asked for favours… and life has provided me with potentialities.

I have received nothing of what I have been asking for… but I received everything that I needed!

Live your life without any fear, within the clear conscience that everything works for the best, engage yourself with all the hardships that come to you and prove the fact that you are able to overcome them all.

--Author Unknown.

The Man And The Butterfly Fable (Video Version)