Re: Looking for old story

[Guest guest]

I think this is what you were looking for.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by

Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability

- to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand

it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip -

to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The

Coliseum. The Michelangelo . The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some

handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags

and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in

and says, " Welcome to Holland. "

" Holland?!? " you say. " What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm

supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy. "

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and

there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting,

filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different

place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new

language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have

met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than

Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you

look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and

Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all

bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your

life, you will say " Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had

planned. "

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of

that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy,

you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ...

about Holland.

>

> Hi there! Its in NH. I read a story on here quite some time ago that

was an analogy of a parent that wanted to live in this wonderful country with

all the frills etc (meaning their child was born without disabilities) but they

ended up living in a small country which didn't have all the things they

expected..or something like that..but that it was just as beautiful...just

different.

>

> Does that make sense to anyone? If so, can someone repost it? I would love

to print it out.

>

> Thanks!

>

>

> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

>

[Guest guest]

I always liked this one too -about the butterfly and how struggle is good -so

many lessons in this story too.

Once a little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He

carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother

if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it.

The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a

stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought

it new plants to eat.

One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The

boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was

creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going

to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go

through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it

happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to

struggle to come out.

At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was

struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn't break free! It looked

desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!

The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, and then

walked back (because he had learned not to run with scissors…). He snipped the

cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!

As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and

small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at

any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen

body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly's wings would

expand.

But neither happened!

The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and

shriveled wings.

It never was able to fly…

As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong his mother took him to talk

to a scientist from a local college. He learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED

to struggle. In fact, the butterfly's struggle to push its way through the tiny

opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings.

Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy's good

intentions hurt the butterfly.

As you go through school, and life, keep in mind that struggling is an important

part of any growth experience. In fact, it is the struggle that causes you to

develop your ability to fly.

=====