Tuesday, February 3, 2009
[Taken from a friend's blog. Found it quite interesting...]
From the time the eaglet is born, he is nurtured in the comfort and warmth of the nest. Fed and kept warm by its parent. Covered in soft down feathers.
Over time, he becomes stronger and generates his own heat. He has developed an insulating layer of secondary and tertiary feathers in replacement of some of the down feathers, a formidable shield against the wind. The powerful air-resistance properties of these feathers also has the ability to keep the bird airborne. He no longer needs the mother eagle to keep it warm in the day. The mother knows it is time. Time for baby to learn how to fly, to feel the wind in its feathers and the satisfaction of capturing live prey. To experience hunger and cold at night and to learn how to survive.
Gingerly, she moves the eaglet onto her back. The eaglet feels uncomfortable and awkward in this new position. What's mum up to?
She perches herself on the edge of the nest that was nestled right on top of a cliff. The strong wind throws baby off balance. He stays low to reduce the air resistance. The mother eagle pauses for a while, then tips herself off the edge, spreading her wings in flight.
The eaglet is excited, scared and bewildered. The wonderful feeling of the wind against its face makes its heart pump really fast. Faster, mum! Higher! Higher! Weee!
The mother climbs higher and higher, much to baby's delight. Then, quite suddenly, she did something alarming. She tilted her wings and allowed the baby to roll off her back.
Panic. This looks so much like betrayal. Is she disowning me now? Does she not want me anymore? But there was no time to think. With each second, he's coming closer to the ground. He needs to do something now!
Quite naturally, he starts to flap its wings in a wild, desparate attempt not to hit the ground hard. He started to drop slower. But it was not enough. It was too late. He was approaching the ground too quickly.
And then in the last minute, a dark shadow swoops from under him and he feels something soft under his feet. Mum! You're back! What on earth were you trying to do? I was scared stiff!
The mother keeps silent and climbs again. Higher. But this time, the eaglet has already started to recognize the pattern and has spread its wings wide, way before mum dropped it again. This time, he stayed bouyant for a while before continuing to lose altitude. But he was not afraid anymore. Because he knew that his mum would surely come to his rescue. True enough, she did. And she repeated the whole cycle a few times, for a few days, until finally, the eaglet learnt to work with the wind and control his movements with a simple tip of his wings.
Mother looks out from the nest at the edge of the cliff, pride in her eyes. Amidst her worries and concerns for her son's survival, she knows her son is ready for the outside world. He is ready to lead his own life, even though it will not be quite as comfortable as the nest was. He will have to learn to maintain his integrity in a world with changes and challenges and deceit. To be amongst them but not to be like them. Because he's a prince. He's born to fly higher than the other birds.
After reading the post, I thought about my own life. Since young, I was very much in the shelter of my parents and family. Timid and shy, I was always apprehensive when it comes to interacting with other people and making contacts with them. I still remember there was once when I went to the hawker centre with my dad, he refused to buy chicken rice for me and asked me to buy it alone. I was shy and hungry and pestered him to make the purchase for me, like how he always did. But during that single occasion, he wanted me to learn how to be independent and be bold to speak to others.
Holding the $2 in my hands, I felt betrayed that my dad would leave me all alone to fend for myself while happily doing his own things, leaving his son to suffer in hunger. But I knew he wanted me to learn, to step out as I realise later although at that point in time, I was quite resentful towards him.
Making the purchase was actually so simple afterall!! Just saying the item, handing over the money and the deal is pretty much through. WHy did I make it sound like I am doing some big business? Haha..WEll, I was really closed up when I was young, probably due to the environment I was in. But then after that incident, and subsequent ones, I learnt to slowly do things myself independently, even to shop at Jurong Point myself. If I remember correctly, I should be about 7 or 8 years old that time, quite old considering the behaviour of kids nowadays climbing over the teachers' heads and creating havoc. Hehe...
I still have my dad to thank for indirectly teaching me things like that. Actually, I realise after I become a Christian, this is how God teaches us as well. Slowly and surely, just like the eagle, teaching us to fly and ultimately carve out a life of our own while helping us out at the side all along.
We have much to learn from the eaglet's flight.=)