There’s the story of a woman who found the cocoon of an emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point.
Deciding something was wrong, the woman took scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth emerged easily, it’s body large and swollen, its wings small and shriveled. She expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty. They did not. Instead of developing into a creature free to fly, it spent its life dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings.
What happened? The constricting cocoon and the struggle necessary to pass through the tiny opening force fluid from the body into the wings. The “merciful” snip was in reality cruel.
Call it a crucible. Call it the “vale of soul making.” Struggle builds resilience and creativity; sometimes struggle is exactly what we need.
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