Spreading your wings

At the edge of the woods, near a small farm, a baby eagle fell out of the nest. The farmer found the eagle, and thinking it was one of his own, brought him to the chicken coop with his other chickens. As time passed, the baby eagle grew up learning to do what chickens do. He clucked, he strutted around the coop pecking at the corn and even tried his voice at the morning wake up call.

A naturalist visited the farm one evening. As he stood by the chicken coop where he was surprise to see the fine-looking eagle among the chicken. "How come you have an eagletrapped in there?" he asked. "Well", explained the farmer, "I found it when it was little and raised it in there with the chicken. It has grown up just like the ordinary chicken." "Doesn't it ever try to spread his wings and fly out of there?" asked the visitor curiously.

"No," replied the farmer, "I doubt it ever will; it is not aware of the power in its wings."

"Would you mind if I try out a few experiments with it?" asked the naturalist.

"Not in the least," said the farmer and added, "But you may only be wasting your time."

The naturalist lifted it to the top of the chicken coop fence and said "Fly!" He pushed the reluctant bird off the fence and it fell to the ground in a pile of feathers. Next, the undaunted researcher took the ruffled chicken-eagle to the farmer's hay loft and spread its wings before tossing the bird high in the air with the command "FLY!" The frightened creature shrieked and fell ungraciously to the barn-yard where it resumed pecking the ground in search of its dinner.

The naturalist again picked up the eagle and decided to give it one more chance in a more appropriate environment, out of sight of its familiar surroundings. He drove the bird in his car to a hilly site outside the village. Carrying the eagle he climbed a steep incline and placed the bird carefully on a large boulder. He spoke gently to the golden bird: "You were born to soar, fly eagle, fly!"

Then he slowly pushed it out of the boulder top. Instinctively, the eagle spread out its seven-foot wing-span and drifted gracefully in the air. Then, carried by the wind, it flew further... out of sight.

The naturalist returned to the farm jubilant.