The Naturalist and the Eagle http://www.makeadifference.com

... from a Return To Love, Marianne Williamson so eloquently states: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness that most frightens us." We are all eagles. Once we have flown, we can never go back to live like a chicken. It is not a delusion to think we can fly; it is a delusion to think we can't. Manage your fear of greatness and then ... stretch forth your wings and fly toward the dreams that are awaiting you.

Eagle Parable written by James Aggrey in the early 1920's:

Once a man found a young eagle in a forest and took it home and put it in his barnyard. The eagle ate the chicken feed and behaved just as chickens do. One day a naturalist friend noticed it and asked the owner why the eagle, king of all birds, confined with the chickens, "Since I have given chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly," answered the man.

"Still," insisted the naturalist, "it has heart of an eagle and certainly it can be taught to fly."

The two agreed to find out whether it was possible. The naturalist took the eagle and said "You belong to the sky and not the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly". The eagle was confused and refused to make an attempt. The second day the naturalist took the eagle to the roof and urged the eagle again. But the eagle was afraid and jumped down for the chicken feed. On the third day the naturalist took it to the top of a mountain. He held the eagle high above him and said. "You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly."

The eagle slowly looked around, up to the sky and down to the barnyard. The naturalist lifted him further up, and the eagle started trembling, slowly he stretched his wings and with a triumphant cry, he soared away into the heavens.