Hidden Power

Once, a man found an eagle’s egg and decided to place it into the nest of a prairie chicken. Eventually, the egg hatched along with the rest of the chicken’s eggs, and the mother chicken began raising the baby eagle as her own.

For years, the young eagle, convinced it was a prairie chicken, did exactly as its “siblings” did. He scratched in the dirt for worms; he copied their clucking; he never flew more than a few feet off the ground.

Eventually, the eagle, now very old, saw a great bird flying far above him in the blue and cloudless sky. Soaring with majesty and grace, the glorious bird had the eagle spellbound.

The eagle turned to one of its siblings, scratching in the dirt nearby. “What an amazing bird!” the eagle said. “What is it?”

The sibling clucked, “An eagle, king of all the birds. But don’t worry about it. He has nothing to do with us. Just be happy where you are.”

The eagle, believing his sibling to be wise, immediately put the majestic bird out of his head, never thinking of it again for the rest of his days.

The eagle died, still thinking it was a prairie chicken.

_C&P_