The Eagle and the Chicken

I’m not sure if you have heard of the tale of the eagle living so long among chickens that it believed itself to be a chicken. There are several variations, but this is one I like:

“A fable is told about an eagle who thought he was a chicken. When the eagle was very small, he fell from the safety of his nest. A chicken farmer found the eagle, brought him to the farm, and raised him in a chicken coop among his many chickens. The eagle grew up doing what chickens do, living like a chicken, and believing he was a chicken.

        A naturalist came to the chicken farm to see if what he had heard about an eagle acting like a chicken was really true. He knew that an eagle is king of the sky. He was surprised to see the eagle strutting around the chicken coop, pecking at the ground, and acting very much like a chicken. The farmer explained to the naturalist that this bird was no longer an eagle. He was now a chicken because he had been trained to be a chicken and he believed that he was a chicken.

        The naturalist knew there was more to this great bird than his actions showed as he "pretended" to be a chicken. He was born an eagle and had the heart of an eagle, and nothing could change that. The man lifted the eagle onto the fence surrounding the chicken coop and said, "Eagle, thou art an eagle. Stretch forth thy wings and fly."  The eagle moved slightly, only to look at the man; then he glanced down at his home among the chickens in the chicken coop where he was comfortable. He jumped off the fence and continued doing what chickens do. The farmer was satisfied. "I told you it was a chicken," he said.

        The naturalist returned the next day and tried again to convince the farmer and the eagle that the eagle was born for something greater. He took the eagle to the top of the farmhouse and spoke to him: "Eagle, thou art an eagle. Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth thy wings and fly." The large bird looked at the man, then again down into the chicken coop. He jumped from the man's arm onto the roof of the farmhouse.

        Knowing what eagles are really about, the naturalist asked the farmer to let him try one more time. He would return the next day and prove that this bird was an eagle. The farmer, convinced otherwise, said, "It is a chicken."

        The naturalist returned the next morning to the chicken farm and took the eagle and the farmer some distance away to the foot of a high mountain. They could not see the farm nor the chicken coop from this new setting. The man held the eagle on his arm and pointed high into the sky where the bright sun was beckoning above. He spoke: "Eagle, thou art an eagle! Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth thy wings and fly."

This time the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straightened his large body, and stretched his massive wings.  His wings moved, slowly at first, then surely and powerfully.  With the mighty screech of an eagle, he flew.” [1]

Its message is clear, but I only recently realized its significance for me. My last name, depending on how it’s pronounced in Arabic, can mean chicken. The first time I saw an eagle, it was just after I had quit Microsoft and was in the mountains of Washington State in a workshop to figure out the next steps of my life. I thought it a magnificent coincidence to see an eagle soar by, and refused to consider it as an invitation to accept Eagle as a totem. After all, I thought, who am I?

The second time, a few months later, I was in the same location when, this time, the eagle landed a few meters away from me, as if defying me to accept its call.

So here I was, the chicken, being invited to fly, to remember that it is an eagle, and refusing to do so.  How many of us have done that?

We are all eagles, called to so much more: called to soar, to lift our gazes beyond our current circumstances, to see with the eyes of the heart, to believe in our own grace and beauty.

Hold on to that, no matter what the voices around you, and within you, keep saying.

Follow your call, and blaze with the light of a thousand stars.

With love,

~Mony

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[1] (Walk Tall, You're A Daughter Of God, by Jamie Glenn [Deseret Book Company: Jamie Glenn, 1994], pp. 22-4.)