[Pollinator] Sage example from a butterfly

[Kimberly Winter]

An empowering story from India 
(http://www.chennaionline.com/columns/tts/2006/tales32.asp)

"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 cocoon. 
Feeling lonely he decided to take the cocoon home to watch its beautiful 
transformation from a funny little cocoon to a beautiful butterfly. He 
gently placed the cocoon on his kitchen table, and watched over it for days.

Suddenly, on the seventh day, the cocoon started to move. It moved 
frantically. The old man felt sorry for the little butterfly inside the 
cocoon. He watched it struggle and struggle and struggle. Finally, he felt 
he should do something to relieve the insect of the torture. With a surgical 
scalpel he gently slit the cocoon so the butterfly could emerge.

Just one slice was all that was needed and the butterfly broke free from its 
cocoon only to lie in a motionless state. The old man was shocked. He never 
realised that the insect would be harmed. “Had I killed the butterfly?” was 
his worried response. Then he saw it moving a little. There was hope. He 
gently put it back in the cocoon.

The next day, he noticed that the cocoon was moving again. “Wow,” said the 
old man, so happy to see the insect moving and moving and yet struggling and 
struggling. Finally, the butterfly broke from its cocoon and stretched its 
wings out far and wide. Its beautiful wings were filled with wonderful 
colours. It looked hither, thither and took off. What a sight. It was 
flying, making any number of rounds, settling on flowers only to take off 
and land.

That wonderful butterfly flew and flew and soon was out of sight of the old 
man. “What joy,” the old man exclaimed. “I was only helping the butterfly in 
the cocoon. Why did it almost collapse? What wrong did I do?” He went to the 
town. He went straight to a library and read every book he could on 
butterflies. The answer emerged.

The butterfly has to struggle and struggle in the cocoon. That’s how it gets 
it strength. That’s how they are designed to overcome in order to be strong 
and beautiful.

We are all beautiful butterflies; we have our apparent struggles in life. 
The more struggles we have, the stronger we emerge.

So, trials and tribulations, difficulties and disasters, we welcome you, as 
you build us strong.

More Articles D Hariharaputhran
Published on April 13th, 2006"