Errol from Narangba, Australia.
-----Original Message-----
From: SS14U2(AT)aol.com <SS14U2(AT)aol.com>
To: tmic-list(AT)eskimo.com <tmic-list(AT)eskimo.com>
Date: Tuesday, 10 November, 1998 9:26 PM
Subject: The Cocoon - Encouragement for The Group from Suzie
>
>"The Cocoon"
>
>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 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 decided to
>help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped
>off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
>
>The butterfly then emerged easily.
>
>But it had a swollen 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 G-d'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
>G-d 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.
>
>And we could never fly.
>