Peck With Chickens or Soar With Eagles

I recently read a post by author Derek Rydall. In the post Derek wrote the line, “your conditions do not determine your destiny”. As soon as I read that line, it brought to mind all of the amazing examples of those who’ve come from very bleak or poor conditions, but have risen to some of the highest heights of accomplishment, despite the conditions they were born into.

I’ll just share a brief story with you to help bring it all together. To give you a hint, the story is about chickens and eagles.

One Spring morning, a farmer found a peculiar looking egg near a stream on his land. He examined the egg and saw it was intact, had no cracks and looked like some type of bird egg. The farmer couldn’t tell what type of bird the egg was from, so he just brought it back to his hen house and placed it there with the other chicken eggs to be hatched.

Weeks later, the farmer went to the chicken coupe and noticed that the egg he found was hatched. He looked over at the hatchlings and he could see one of the chicks looked a little weird. It was a dark brown color and had a different shaped beak than all the other chicks. It was indeed the bird from that egg he found in the field. The farmer still couldn’t tell what type of bird it was. So, he just left the peculiar looking bird there in the chicken coupe to grow up with the rest of the chickens.

A few months later, a salesman came by the farm and noticed the strange little bird that hatched from that egg the farmer found. The bird was pecking, scratching the dirt and clucking just like the other chickens, though it looked noticeably different from all the others.

The salesman told the farmer, “sir, I think you may have an eagle in your chicken coupe”! The farmer replied, “nonsense”! The salesman persisted and said, “eagles can fly instinctively so let me try and get it to fly and you’ll see, that bird is an eagle”.

The salesman picked up the bird and noticed it had very strong wings, as they fluttered and flapped in his hands. The salesman gently tossed the bird into the air. It hovered for a few seconds and then fluttered right back down to the grass. On the fifth attempt, the little bird took flight about eight or nine feet in the air.

When the farmer saw this bird flying, he smiled and then tossed out a hand full of chicken feed on to the ground below. Suddenly, the little bird came right down from soaring in air and starting pecking and scratching to eat the chicken feed from the ground. The farmer laughed and said, “it was raised with the chickens, so it’s a chicken”!

The salesman persisted and asked if he could take the little bird up to the side of the mountain and try again. The farmer laughed and agreed. An hour later, the salesman made it to the edge of a nearby mountain, several hundred feet above the ground and a distance away from the farm and the other chickens.

On the count of three, the salesman gently tossed the little bird onto one of the gusting winds. Just like the salesman said, the little bird instinctively began to flap its wings with authority. Moments later, it was soaring gracefully above the mountains. Soon, other birds appeared and soared right along side it. It was almost as if these other birds were some how teaching this little bird how to navigate the sky.

The salesman came down from the mountainside and returned to the farm. The farmer saw the salesman approaching and laughed, ”so where’s my chicken?” The salesman walked closer and told the farmer with a slight grin, “sir, with all due respect, just because you raised that bird among the chickens doesn’t make it a chicken. It’s an eagle, always was and always will be. It was not born to peck down here with the chickens, it was born to soar with the eagles!

The Message

No matter what circumstances you were born into, no matter what conditions you may be experiencing, there is an eagle inside of you! You don’t have to settle for scratching and pecking for whatever’s thrown to the ground in front of you. The eagle in you wants to be elevated to much higher ground in order to view and experience all the plentiful blessings and treasures that life has to offer.

There’s an eagle in you, always was and always will be. Believe when I say that you were not born to peck with chickens! You were born to soar with eagles!

—

Previously Published on medium

You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project

Compliments Men Want to Hear More Often

Relationships Aren’t Easy, But They’re Worth It

The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex

..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything

—

Photo credit: Shutterstock