“I’ve always known I was a duck,” she said, “but I’ve spent my whole life being told I was a chicken. Every Time I try to say ‘quack’ the world tells me that I have to say ‘cluck.’ I even started believing that I was a chicken and not a duck. Then we started hanging out and I found somebody else who quacked. And that’s when I thought: To hell with them, I really am a duck!”
~Emma Watson in Tom Felton’s book Beyond the Wand.
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I grew up around story tellers. My dad is arguably the best story teller OF. ALL. TIME.
My dad’s stories are his life events and when he’s telling them you probably don’t want to be in the seat next to him. He is a VERY animated story teller and often uses people as props. Once, he used my husband’s head as the shifter knob in retelling an adventure with Chevelle he owned. It’s incredibly entertaining.
During my elementary, bus riding years I shared a seat with a classmate. Every day to and from school she would retell stories. Sometimes she would share adventures she had with her siblings but I think her super power was retelling other stories, like fairytales and fables.
She had a talent for making up voices for each character. She’s the type of story teller all parent’s at bedtime aspire to be.
Before cliques parted us, she would practicing her speech meet stories in front of me. This one was always my favorite.
The Parable of the Eagle
Once upon a time, there was a farmer that was walking through the forest where the trees were so tall they nearly touched the sky. He found on the ground, wandering and lost – a baby eagle..the King of the sky. The farmer, being a good hearted, kind man picked up the eagle and brought him home to raise him, keep him safe, and give the eagle a family – to have him live among the farmer’s chickens. And all seemed well. The King of the sky lived quite happily in the chicken coop with his new found family.
Everyday the farmer came out and threw seeds to the chickens and the chickens pecked the ground so the eagle pecked at the ground. The chickens would wiggled their tail feathers so the eagle began to wiggle his tail feathers. The chickens never raised their wings, so the eagle didn’t even know that he had wings. The eagle never looked at the sky because he’s was a chicken and what interest does a chicken have in the sky?
Years passed and one day a wise man traveled past the farmers house. The wise man happened to notice the eagle clucking around in the chicken coop. It seemed strange and unusual so the wise man turned to the farmer and said, “That’s an eagle, King of the sky!”
The farmer responded, “Oh no, that there’s a chicken. He walks like a chicken, talks like a chicken, eats’s like a chicken, that’s a chicken.”
The wise man said, “No, no no, that’s an eagle, please let me show you.”
The wise man picked up the eagle and put him on his arm, and said to the eagle, “you are an eagle, FLY!”
The eagle looked at the wise man confused.
The farmer looked at the wise man, unimpressed and began to throw the seeds out to the chickens. The chickens started pecking the ground and the wise man watched as the King of the sky hopped to the ground and started pecking at the seeds. “I told ya, that there’s a chicken.” the farmer said.
The next day the wise man returned and begged the farmer for another chance to prove to him that he had an eagle. The farmer shrugged and agreed. This time the wise man took the eagle to the top of the roof of the barn. He held the eagle out on his arm and said, “you are an eagle, you have the HEART of an eagle and you must FLY!” The eagle kind of wiggled his shoulders like he was considering what the man was saying was true, but just then the farmer came out with the feed and started throwing it to the chickens. The chickens started pecking the ground and only after a moment’s hesitation the eagle hopped down and joined them.
On the third day the wise man returned once more. “Wise man, you’re not so wise. That there’s a chicken,” the farmer told him. Again the wise man begged for one more chance to prove this was an eagle. The farmer agreed to give him one more chance.
The wise man took this bird, with white feathers on his head and a majestic brown feathered body and climbed to top of the trees in the forest that touched the sky. There was a breeze and the wise man held out his arm and whispered to the eagle, “I know you love the chickens who raised you, but it’s ok for you to become who you TRULY are. You are an eagle. KING of the sky and it’s time to fly.”
The eagle looked at the wise man. Far below, the he could hear the farmer throwing seeds for the chickens. Just then the wind picked up and the eagle’s feathers began to rustle. Slowly, he opened his wings he had never seen but always suspected might be there and with a cry he jumped and soared into the sky.
Legend has it he circled the coop three times as if to say goodbye and thank you to the chickens before disappearing to this rightful place as King of the Sky.
Sometimes we forget who we really are or we conform to who we think other people want us to be. The best thing you can be is yourself. Or a duck if you’re Emma Watson 🤪
Namaste,
Jes xoxo