CHICKEN or EAGLE?

Once upon a time a pair of eagles fell in love. They built a nest of sticks,
straw and mud in the tallest tree. The mommy eagle laid her egg and sat on it,
24 hours a day. The daddy went out hunting for food and brought it back to his bride.

One day the daddy did not return. As the hours turned into days she was starving
so she had to hunt for food or die. While she was gone a storm blew the nest out
of the tree but it fell into a pile of hay in a chicken yard. The hens looked out and
saw the biggest egg they had ever seen.

When the storm was over they pushed that giant chicken egg into the barn.
It was so big that it took two hens to sit on it. As the shell cracked, out came
the biggest chicken they had ever seen. Colonel Sanders would have had a feast
frying those legs and breasts.

The hens consulted with the rooster to see if they could keep it. Even though
it was twice his size he said, ok. They taught him that chickens pecked,
scratched and ate worms.

At about six months the little eagle was scratching when he looked up to see
the most beautiful bird soaring up in the sky. He wanted to fly like that
so he flapped his wings up and down harder and harder and got a foot off the ground.

The hens came over and told him that he was a chicken and chickens did not fly,
they pecked, scratched and ate worms.

So he stopped trying to fly for a while but later he got behind the barn,
when no one was looking and flapped his wings until he was flying 6 feet off the ground.
As he landed he did not see that hen run back to the other hens with the story.

All the hens rushed behind the barn and began to peck on the little eagle until
he was bloody all over. They told him that he was a chicken and chickens did not fly,
they pecked and scratched and dug for worms.

Do you know what happened then?

Did he look them in the eye and tell them that he was an eagle, not a chicken? NO!
Did he run away from the chicken yard so he could fly? NO!
Did he believe them and never tried to fly again? YES!

. Do you gossip and listen too much to other people who put you down?
. Do you think that Deaf people are not as good, or not as loved by God, as much as hearing people?
. Do you think that God is punishing you for the bad things you have done?
. Can you be more than you are, now?

Do you want to be a chicken or an eagle?

Fr. Henry Kuykendall
Pastor of Nativity/Holy Spirit
Chaplain of the Catholic Ministry of the Deaf
Diocese of Evansville, In.