Story Time: The Butterfly

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 squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn’t go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!

In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:

The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly.
So have a nice day and struggle a little and teach well.

To Those With Fame

"A celebrity is a person who works hard all of their life to become well known, and then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized."

To Those With Fame,

I've heard some of you say something in your interviews, about working hard to make it because you "knew" you would someday. You just had this feeling that you were meant to be known, and that's what fueled your journey. Sometimes, I feel like I have the same energy. I can see myself on stage singing. I truly think I can belt out a tune until I try to, and for a moment the energy is gone. I think I can dance- hell, I do every day in front of the mirror and it doesn't look half bad. But there are others that can actually dance, and I just don't compare. When I hear advertisements for talent agencies on the radio, I have daydreams that I, a girl with zero acting experience or instruction, could just show up at one of these events and instantly be recognized as a big star. They would probably laugh at me in real life... or tell me that I should model? No- I'm too short, too big, I untag myself from too many pictures on Facebook. So why do I feel this way, like I should be known, when I have nothing to offer the world? I have dreams of being on the red carpet, seeing my face on TV, being interviewed, and then have to will myself awake and snap back to reality. Is this a real feelings that I should be acting on, or simply a fantasy that most people have? Maybe I'll never know...

Sincerely,

Faith Carter
(I'll practice my autograph just in case.)