Inspiration: What are you?

Inspiration: What are you?

Are you a winner, are you willing to chase your dreams, have you allowed the challenges of life to hold you down?

Life can be challenging; we encounter difficulty here and there, oppositions, limitations and setbacks in life. Yes, you are not alone in this challenging world. Sometimes, we find ourselves in positions we never envisaged that we are; we wish to turn things around but we keep hitting roadblocks.

In this post, we will look at the Parable of the Eagle by James Aggrey. We will analyse it and give example of how it is applicable to life.

 

Eagle - courtesy of Robert O Toole

“The Parable of the Eagle” - James Aggrey

Once upon a time, while walking through the forest, a certain man found a young eagle. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat chicken feed and to behave as chickens behave.

One day, a naturalist who was passing by inquired of the owner why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens.

“Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly.” replied the owner. “It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle.” “Still,” insisted the naturalist, “it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly.”

After talking it over, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible. Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.”

The eagle, however, was confused; he did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their feed, he jumped down to be with them again.

Undismayed, the naturalist took the eagle, on the following day, up on the roof of the house and urged him again, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken feed.

On the third day, the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There, he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as the earth. Stretch forth your wings now, and fly.” The eagle looked around, back toward the barnyard and up to the sky. Still he did not fly.

Then the naturalist lifted him straight toward the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble and slowly he stretched his wings. At last, with a triumphant cry, he soared away into the heavens.

It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia; it may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken. He was an eagle even though he had been kept and tamed as a chicken.

In this parable, I wish to compare the eagle to a football player Cristiano Ronaldo – CR7, the Real Madrid and Portuguese forward/winger.

Just like the eagle possesses great wings and big heart to fly, Cristiano Ronaldo possesses every quality required of a football player, he has speed, has dribbling skills; however, his limitation was that the Portuguese league was not as vibrant as the English or Spanish league.

When the opportunity came to display his prowess in field against Manchester United while playing for Sporting Lisbon, he displayed lots of courage and this made the Manchester United players to shower a lot of praises on him; they wished that we became a part of Manchester United, to which Alex Ferguson agreed.

Just like the Eagle reared as a chicken, he did not know his potentials. He preferred to wear the number 28 shirt; however, Alex Ferguson whom I see as the naturalist in the eagle parable knew better, he bestowed Cristiano with a shirt number that has pedigree – number 7.

Cristiano Ronaldo

With good coaching, Cristiano Ronaldo never looked back on his career. Just like the eagle learnt how to fly, he became a renowned football player, winning trophies for Manchester united and Real Madrid, and many more individual awards such as the FIFA World Footballer of the Year – this he has won thrice so far, anticipating of another by January 2014.

In this parable, we learnt that we are not meant to allow limitations caused by our environment or other challenges to hold us back from achieving our dreams. We should do our best in any situation we find ourselves and hope for the best. Pray to God for opportunities, pray to God for people who can recognize our talents and supports in developing our talents and putting our talents into great use.