A naturalist was visiting a farmer one day and was surprised to see a beautiful eagle in the farmer\u2019s chicken coop. \u201cWhy in the world,asked the naturalist, have you got this eagle living in with the chickens?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, answered the farmer, I found him when he was little and raised him in there with the chickens. He doesn\u2019t know any better, he thinks he is a chicken.\u201d The naturalist was dumbfounded. The eagle was pecking the grain and drinking from the watering can. The eagle kept his eyes on the ground and strutted around in circles, looking every inch a big, over-sized chicken. \u201cDoesn\u2019t he ever try to spread his wings and fly out of there?\u201d asked the naturalist. \u201cNo, said the farmer, and I doubt he ever will, he doesn\u2019t know what it means to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, said the naturalist, \u201clet me take him out and do a few experiments with him.\u201d The farmer agrees, but assured the naturalist that he was wasting his time. The naturalist lifted the bird to the top of the chicken coop fence and said \u201cFly!\u201d He pushed the reluctant bird off the fence and it fell to the ground in a pile of dusty feathers. Next, the undaunted researcher took the ruffled chicken\/eagle to the farmer\u2019s hay loft and spread it\u2019s wings before tossing it high in the air with the command \u201cFLY!\u201d The frightened bird shrieked and fell ungraciously to the barn-yard where it resumed pecking the ground in search of it\u2019s dinner. The naturalist again picked up the eagle and decided to give it one more chance in a more appropriate environment, away from the bad examples of chicken lifestyle. He set the docile bird on the front seat of his pickup truck next to him and headed for the highest butte in the country. After a lengthy and sweaty climb to the crest of the butte with the bird tucked under his arm, he spoke gently to the goldenbird. \u201cFriend, he said, you were born to soar. It is better that you die here today on the rocks below than live the rest of your life being a chicken in a pen, gawked at and out of your element.\u201d Having said these final words, he lifted the eagle up and once more commanded it to \u201cFLY!\u201d He tossed it out in space and this time, much to his relief, it opened it\u2019s seven-foot wingspan and flew gracefully into the sky. It slowly climbed in ever higher spirals, riding unseen thermals of hot air until it disappeared into the glare of the morning sun.<\/p>\n
The naturalist smiled and thought how happy he was with his days work. Like the eagle, he had for many years, let other people define his worth and direct his life for him. Like the eagle, it had taken a life and death situation for him to realize his self worth and real calling in life.<\/p>\n
It took courage to change occupations in mid-life and face the disappointments of those who believed he couldn\u2019t possibly leave his accounting firm and be successful in the physically challenging occupation of a park ranger. But, just like the eagle, he had risen out of the abyss of self-doubt and stretched his soul toward new horizons. \u201cActually, mused the naturalist, I never doubted that beautiful bird \u2013 If I could do it, I knew he could too!\u201d<\/p>\n
The moral of the story, of course, is to not let other people define our self-worth or keep us under their limiting and oppressive influence.<\/p>\n
-Anonymously written.
\nEdited and revised by Laura Martin-Buhler<\/p>\n
P.S. Thanks for Like\u2019ing, Tweetin, Sharing and Commenting\u2026<\/p>\n
Published on\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A naturalist was visiting a farmer one day and was surprised to see a beautiful eagle in the farmer\u2019s chicken coop. \u201cWhy in the world,asked the naturalist, have you got this eagle living in with the chickens?\u201d \u201cWell, answered the farmer, I found him when he was little and raised him in there with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1179,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[15,16],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-empower-network","tag-chicken","tag-eagle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/nkedem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}