The Cocoon and The Butterfly

This is based on a true story.

There was once a group of students studying the life cycle of a butterfly. They took a caterpillar from the campus garden and kept it in their laboratory for that purpose. Everyday they would feed the caterpillar with fresh leaves, as to make sure it lives healthily until the time it would transform into a butterfly.

Days gone, the caterpillar transformed into a cocoon. The students kept monitoring the development as they didn't want to miss the moment it would come out from the cocoon.

Then the day came. Their calculation was right, and they were so excited to see that their patience would finally get paid. Their professor who monitored the group's project was also present to witness the magical moments. They watched in awe how the butterfly struggled its way trying to release itself from the cocoon. It felt like time had passed, but the butterfly was still struggling its way out. They felt sorry for the poor butterfly, so they helped it out by cutting the cocoon with a pair of scissor, very careful indeed as not to injure the struggling butterfly. Within a few seconds, it was free and they were so happy.

Much to their surprise, the freed butterfly didn't look like a normal butterfly anybody ever see on this planet. It was badly deformed, one wing so small and the other was almost undeveloped. It almost did not look like a butterfly at all. They were pretty sure nothing was wrong in the process, and they did not even scratched the butterfly when they cut the cocoon. Even worse, it only survived a few hours before it died.

Dumbfounded, they asked their professor, what could be the cause? The professor smiled, shook his head and explained:

"You have tampered with nature when you help the butterfly by cutting its cocoon. You think you are helping it, but indeed you had deformed it. God had make it to struggle out of its cocoon for with the energy struggle, the needed fluid and exact nutrition will flow to its wings and other parts of the body. It will then make it a perfect and beautiful butterfly. The shortcut you gave it made it not struggling enough!"

Moral of the story: NO PAIN NO GAIN. It is the rule of nature that one should feel the pain and hardships of life, before one can sip the juice of joy, success and happiness. So if you think your life now really sucks, you're actually having the right ingredients of moving towards success. Beware of shortcuts, and also beware with feeling complacent. There are Malay sayings which said: Berakit-rakit ke hulu, berenang-renang ke tepian, bersusah-susah dahulu, bersenang-senang kemudian. And the Ibanese sayings: Agi idup agi ngelaban!