I read a book yesterday written by a neighbor of Dan and Janet in Mapleton. It's about the neighbor's sister, who had a stroke a week after her 3rd child was born, and became totally paralyzed. It details her struggle to recover as her doctor said there was no chance for survival, as her husband has an affair, then divorced her and sought sole custody of the three girls. A couple of ideas in the book really jumped out at me that I think apply to each of us:
"A threshold guardian is someone or something that guards the way to the next stage in one's development. This person or event makes you struggle, or seduces you to take the path of least resistance. It proves that you are strong or it wears you down--enticing you to quit and just stay where you are.
A threshold guardian may be an enemy, a hardship, an obstacle, or an unexpected fortune, a lucky break, or advancement. The threshold guardian, be it a person or a situation, presents you with the opportunity to evolve. How you deal with the guardian determines the direction of your evolution."
Just like the boy, the cocoon and the butterfly story...where the boy thinks he is "helping" the butterfly by tearing away bits of the cocoon so the butterfly can get out; but he doesn't realize the struggles the butterfly makes, flapping it's wings against the tough cocoon shell, is what makes it strong enough to survive and be able to fly; and the butterfly, because things were made "easy" for it, dies.
Our experiences, hard though they may be, are what make us grow into stronger individuals, or they can shrivel us up and crush us. We determine what they make of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment