What do butterflies have in common with the human spirit? Meet Maggie, a middle-aged wife and mother who was about to find out.

Maggie wasn’t rich like a millionaire or poor in a manner of being homeless. She was living an average comfortable life. It was made even better when a baby girl came her way. She and her husband made sure their daughter had her needs met and they were still able to take a yearly vacation by the beach.

Maggie was a partner in her husband’s business. They both had a different set of duties and everything was in balance. One day a severe blow came to her husband’s business, and over a three-year period the business dropped out of sight. Her husband had to totally reinvent himself and was eager to start a new business. She was happy for him and supported him fully, but still the money was not coming in.

Maggie began to feel guilty that she wasn’t contributing with any kind of income. She began job-hunting and found filling out applications somewhat difficult, especially the part asking for job references. She was self-employed with her husband for almost 20 years, which seemed to mean nothing as she was never called for an interview.

When she was job-hunting her mom became more ill than she had been and ended up in the hospital for a week. Once Maggie’s mom returned home she became her mom’s helper one day a week. She did everything that her mother was not able to do any more. Of course her mom would pay her for her lime and labor but she still felt she needed to find another source of income.

One of the first applications she had filled out finally came through. She passed the interview and was told she was exactly what they were looking for. Although it was only part-time it was exactly what she wanted. It was important for her to be home when her daughter arrived home from school.

Within a few weeks, though, she received an e-mail saying that the company had changed the job into a full-time position so that she was not qualified. Maggie felt betrayed and felt she had been lied to. That evening she was alone at home. She welcomed the aloneness and wanted to put herself in the bathtub to kill the lonely time.

As she knew she would, Maggie began to cry, softly at first just from the sharp pain of being rejected. Three long years of struggle had finally overwhelmed her.

When she was able to cry no more, she became worn out and gave up. It was at that moment that a silent idea came to her: why not offer elderly people home care assistance? Using another talent for computers she printed off some flyers and cards and distributed them to her church, grocery stores and even placed a small ad in the newspaper. Within a week she had procured two new customers. Now, even though she’s not a CEO of a major company she feels happy and productive again.

Before a butterfly can come out of its chrysalis (茧) it has to go through a lot of struggling. Each time it pushes out to escape, acids are being removed from its wings. If someone were to come along and break the chrysalis open for it then the butterfly would die from those acids. Actually the struggle is necessary for the butterfly to survive. Then in the stillness, when the struggle is over, the butterfly can come out and share its beauty with the world.

We as humans are not any different.