Yesterday, as Mother Sun was creeping slowly down the horizon I went for a walk to say ‘goodnight’ to the birds and smell the damp change of the leaves into burnt oranges and reds. I was quiet and tried to listen to everything the birds were saying to each other, sneaking past the evening joggers and dogs with their people.
As I walked past a window I could see a light burning softly and heard a little girl asking her mummy for another story. So I stopped quietly and listened, you know I can’t miss a good story!
When her mummy finished the story I couldn’t hear the little girl anymore, and as the light went out I knew the story had helped as it always does, to bring the sandman and those wonderful dreams of candy forests. But as I walked on, I kept thinking of the story and I still can’t stop it from dancing in my head, so I need to tell it to someone…and that someone has got to be you! It’s about an eagle
A man was climbing a mountain face near his farm one day and came across an abandoned eagle’s nest. In it there was one egg left. He wasn’t sure whether it had survived but he wrapped it up and put it in his pocket anyway.
When he got home, he slowly unwrapped the egg and felt that it was still warm. He placed it under one of his prized hens and hoped that it would be all right. A few days later the egg hatched and the perfect baby eagle grew up with the rest of the chickens. For years he spent his time, scratching in the sand and grass, never looking up at the sky.
One day when he was very old and thinking about what came after life, he looked up to the sky and beheld a magical sight. An eagle was soaring high in the sky, spreading its wings majestically. The old eagle thought sadly to himself, if only I had been born an eagle…
Remember, there is nothing wrong with being a chicken, they represent so many wonderful things in life. But have you been spending your life walking on and staring at the ground, when you were born to fly?
Fly free lovely eagles!
Alpha Betty
Story Source: Adaptation from an Anthony de Mello story