Making space for the struggle
We tend to seek comfort in life. Many of us avoid the struggle and cling to whatever alleviates our discomfort. We have stopped listening to the wisdom of our pain. Surrendering to distraction, we numb ourselves. We have stopped sitting with our suffering. And yet, without the struggle we cannot fly. A simple truth of the universe.
Nature is our greatest teacher, bringing to our awareness, over and over again, the connection between struggle and survival. In the repeating stories of nature we find clarity. She guides us to acceptance. She is our beautiful mentor for conscious living.
Human storytelling unfolds from what we observe in nature. Fables and parables illustrating the spiritual truth of existence. The parable of the butterfly is a poignant reminder to honour the struggle. In 2020, I was called to write my version of this parable.
Somewhere in the universe, at the same time as you are reading this, a young boy stares at the chrysalis of a butterfly. Looking closely, he notices a small opening at its end. A butterfly inside is moving in time to every exhale and inhale the young boy makes. A dance of nature.
Mesmerised, the young boy watches the butterfly as she tries to squeeze her body through the tiny hole. Anxious for her release, and impatient to see the butterfly’s beautiful wings, the boy gently tears the end of the chrysalis with his grubby fingers. He watches with delight as the butterfly emerges with ease.
His smile begins to fade as he notices the butterfly’s swollen body and shrivelled wings. Hopeful that the wings will expand, he waits. And waits.
A young girl appears. A friend. She asks what he is doing and he tells her of the butterfly’s troubles, and how he saved her.
With a tear in her eye, the young girl looks at her bare feet. Kicking the dirt she pauses, contemplating if to tell him what he has done, considering if it is kinder for him not to know.
‘Oh,’ she says at last.
‘I am sorry, but this butterfly will die. It will never fly.’
'My dad taught me about butterflies. I know you were trying to be kind but the butterfly has to struggle and find its own way out. The tight chrysalis she has to squeeze through forces blood from her body into her wings so they work. So, the butterfly can fly.’
‘Oh’ says the boy quietly, looking down at the ground with a heavy heart.
Sometimes the kindest thing we can do for others, or ourselves, is to honour the suffering. When we make space for the struggle, we discover the grace of life.
