There was a farmer out in the forest and he heard gunshots. He walked to where the shots were fired and found on the ground two eagles lying there. Somebody shot both of those eagles.
As he stood there, all of a sudden he heard a little noise and he looked up and there was a nest up above. You could hear little eagles in the nest. So he climbed up that tree and looked in the nest to find two little eaglets. He didn’t know what to do so he put them in his pocket and climbed back down the tree and went back home.
He was trying to figure out what he should do with the baby eagles so he said to himself, “I’ll just put them in with the chickens.” He took them out to the chicken coop and put those eagles there.
As time went on they grew a little bit and one day they were talking with each other in eagle language. And one said to the other, “You know, we’re different. We don’t look like them.” Then the other one said, “Don’t be talking like that. We’re chickens. I talked to some of those chickens and they told us that we’re chickens. So don’t be talking like that.”
Time went on and they grew a little bit. Pretty soon one came back and said, “You know, we are really different.” The other said, “Just shut up! They taught us how to crow, we flap our wings like they do, we walk like they do, we do everything like they do. We’re chickens.”
Summer came and one of the eagles went walking down a path and kind of strayed away from the flock. As he got into the forest a little bit he began to hear laughter. It was a really hard, gut-barrel laughter. He looked up to see an owl sitting in a tree. So the eagle looked up at the owl and said, “What are you laughing at?”
The owl kept on laughing and he said, “I’m laughing because you’re acting like a chicken. You’re an eagle but you’re acting just like a chicken.” But right away the eagle says, No, “I’m a chicken.”
“No,” said the owl, “you’re an eagle!” The owl couldn’t convince him so finally the owl flew down and landed by the eagle land he said, “I want you to get on my back and hang on.”
So he got on the back of that owl and the owl took off down the runway and made elevation and started riding the air currents.
Pretty soon the owl was way up in the sky. He said to his passenger, the eagle, “This is you. You soar with the wind. You look way out. You can fly higher than anything.”
The eagle is hanging on the owl and he’s so scared of the height and he’s saying, “No, I’m a chicken, I’m a chicken. Get me back down. By then the owl is getting ready and he says, “I really hate to do this to you but I’ve got to do it.” The owl just flipped over.
The eagle went tumbling through the air and the owl dived down alongside the eagle and he said, “Spread your wings, spread your wings.”
“Spread your wings!”
But pretty soon the eagle started to put out his wings and the wind started to catch them, and all of a sudden…all of a sudden, he just started soaring. He couldn’t believe that he was soaring. He was just amazed.
After a while he landed and went back to the chicken coop and the other eagle was still sitting in there. He was trying to snag those chickens, and all that stuff. Making the moves and competing with the roosters, but the other eagle said, “Brother, come over here.” He whispered into his ear and he said, “You know something, we’re eagles, we’re not chickens.”
But then the other eagle got indignant and said, “Oh no! Don’t you be talking like that. They trained us, they told us what we are. I can do it really good. I can be a chicken really good.” “No,” the other eagle said, “that’s not who we are.” They argued a little bit and the one who had flown said, “I want you to come for a walk with me.” He took his brother for a walk and met the owl, and together they put him on the owl and up they went, riding the air currents, just like the other time. Pretty soon the owl flipped over and down came the eagle with his wings out. He began to soar. And he learned. He learned that he, too was an eagle. Personally, my take-aways (and give-aways) from this story are:
You never know what (and how much) you can do until you try.
Surround yourself with people who will encourage you to fly.
The fact that you have never flown doesn't mean you can never fly
... you need to be willing to try.
Get ready to spread those wings and fly...
no-one can do your flying for you
You can achieve great heights - when you spread your wings. Woman! Just go for it...fly
Well, I know that the year may not have turned out the way you planned but the fact is you are still here which means that the best is still yet to come. I like to remind people that their past and present put together are nothing compared to their future - that thought alone should make and keep you excited.
