Once upon a time in a land far far away, there was a wonderful old man who loved everything. Animals, spiders, insects...

One day while walking through the woods the nice old man found a cocoon¹ of a butterfly. He took it home.

A few days later, a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

Then the man decided² to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped⁴ off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily.

But it had a swollen⁵ body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.

It never was able to fly.

What the man 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 we were allowed to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

And we could never fly.

cocoon 茧

swollen 肿胀的

butterfly 蝴蝶

shriveled 枯萎的

scissors 剪刀

contract 缩小

snip³ off 剪掉，绞掉

fluid 液体

emerge 脱出

cripple 削弱

从前，在一个非常非常遥远的国度，有一位心地善良的老人。他喜爱一切东西，动物啦、蜘蛛啦、昆虫啦。

一天，这位善良的老人在树林里散步的时候，发现了一个蝴蝶的茧。他把茧带回了家。

几天后，茧裂开了一道小缝。老人几小时地坐在那里，看着蝴蝶挣扎着让自己的身体从小缝中挤出来。后来，蝴蝶破茧好象停了下来，没有什么进展了。看来蝴蝶好象是撑到了最后，再也不可能前进了。

看到这里，老人决定帮助蝴蝶。于是他找出一把剪刀，把茧剩余的部分剪破了。

这样，蝴蝶就轻易地从茧中脱出来了。

但是，蝴蝶的身子肿胀着，翅膀又小又皱。老人继续观察着蝴蝶，因为他期望着这样一个时刻的到来：蝴蝶的翅膀会变大，大到能支持它的身体，而蝴蝶的身体届时也会缩小。可是什么也没有发生。事实上，这只蝴蝶的余生中就只能拖着臃肿的身体和萎缩的翅膀爬来爬去了。

它永远也不能飞起来了。

在好心和匆忙间，老人并不理解，蝴蝶破茧而出时需要的那种束缚和挣扎其实是大自然用来将蝴蝶的体液挤到翅膀中的方法，这样，蝴蝶一旦能从茧中脱出，就能准备好飞翔了。

有时候，挣扎正是我们生活中所需要的。如果我们能得以毫无障碍地走过一生，这会使我们软弱。我们就不可能变得强壮。

重要的是，我们就不可能腾飞。