I’ve had a few friends get cancer diagnoses recently
(also let it be known that the longer you live, the more life tends to mess with your loved ones- be ye warned). Their struggle and mine brought to mind an experience I had a few years ago.
I was in a Children’s museum and happened to be there on
the day the chicken eggs in the incubator were hatching. I do believe it is
somewhere in the bylaws of opening up a children’s museum- you MUST have an
incubator full of chicken eggs at all times.
I was a new mom at the time and it completely broke my
heart to see those little creatures struggling so greatly to crack through
their shell. I even nervously looked around for a farmer, a doctor, some sort
of egg-ologist, ANYONE who would be there to help these little fuzzy babies out
of their white-walled predicaments.
I thought, couldn’t I just reach in and crack each egg
and send them waddling on their way? Why are we allowing these guys to struggle
this much? Shouldn’t someone be boiling some water? Bringing towels? What else
do they send men to do in old movies when women are having babies?
The elderly volunteer noticed my look of panic and said,
“You know, they have to go through that. If we helped them out of their shells,
they would most likely die. Breaking through their shell gives it the strength
it needs to survive. You have to let it struggle.”
I’ve since learned that chicks are not alone. Even the
struggle a butterfly must go through when it forces itself out of its cocoon is
the only way to get fluid into its new wings. Without that struggle, the
butterfly dies.
Sometimes the act of struggling for animals isn’t
optional. It makes them strong.
It, unfortunately, it is the same with us. The struggle
makes us grow. The struggle makes us tougher. It is a refining process that can
make us better humans on the other side. I try to remember this example when
things get difficult, when life is unfair, when people are disappointing, when
cancer decides to mess with some amazing people.
Fight on ladies. Fight on friends. Whatever is in your
way, let the struggle make you even better, stronger, and of course, cooler on the other side.
