The following is a story that I hope to someday tell my grandchildren. I want
it to serve as a means of instilling in them the courage and dexterity that I
have somehow found within myself to make it through this wonderful and sometimes
very painful journey. Once upon a time, high, high up in a tree, there was a
bird’s nest and in that nest there was a special, little egg . The mother bird
worried and fussed and fussed and worried over her little egg, saying, “Oh my,
this little egg cannot possibly be big enough for my baby bird.” Finally, the
mother bird’s wait and worry over the little egg came to an end and her baby
hatched. Unfortunately, the egg had indeed been far too small for her baby bird;
the little bird was terribly sick from not having enough room to grow. Not sure
how to care for the little one, which they named Polly, the mother bird and
father bird took their new baby to the Great Owl . Thanks to the Great Owl’s
wisdom and patience, the little bird lived, but, despite his tender care,
Polly’s wings would not grow. The mother bird refused to believe that her
darling baby, that she had worried and waited for, for so long, would never fly.
As Polly grew, her mother worked with her everyday, in hopes of teaching her
daughter to fly. Eventually, their hard work paid off and, although she was a
little slow and awkward, Polly finally learned to fly. As she grew bigger and
surer of herself, Polly wished to play with the other birds her age. She tried
to fly and play with them, but they did not want her in their games. They teased
and mocked her and said she was too slow. Polly wished the other birds
understood how hard she had had to work, just to be able to fly at all. But that
did not matter to the other birds; they only wanted the strongest, fastest birds
for their games . So, Polly went home, heartbroken, and made up her own games to
play.
When it came time for all the young birds to begin school, Polly had no
choice but to join them. Afraid that her sensitive little daughter might be hurt
by the other young birds, Polly’s mother offered to let her go to a special
school, but Polly refused. She was determined to keep up with the “normal” birds
and find a way to fit in. In the beginning, the other birds made fun of Polly,
but it turned out that the games she had made up to occupy her, made Polly much
better than the others in school. Her experience with playing with twigs made
her the best nest builder in her class and, even though she flew slower than the
others, the hide and seek games she played with her mom made her the fastest at
finding worms. Soon, the other birds were so busy trying to keep up with Polly;
they forgot to make fun of her. As time passed, all of the young birds started
to become aware of their unique appearances and some traits became more
desirable than others. It turned out that small, delicate wings became quite the
fashion and soon the little boy birds began to notice that Polly’s wings were
especially small and especially delicate. It didn’t matter anymore that her
wings made her slow; now, they made her pretty. At first, Polly was proud that
her special wings were finally being appreciated and she made sure to show them
off every chance she got. However, it didn’t take long for Polly to get tired of
all the attention she was getting. Many of the boy birds cared more about
Polly’s wings than they cared about Polly and, after awhile, they seemed to
forget that she was attached to her wings at all. Some of the boy birds were
mean and nasty to her when she refused to show off her wings. Before long, Polly
didn’t want to be around the boy birds . Then, one day, as Polly was flying
around by herself, trying to stay away from all the other birds, she met a very
special boy bird. This bird, whose name was Petey, wasn’t as handsome as the
other boy birds but he was very nice to Polly. Polly and Petey soon became best
friends. Neither of them liked flying around with the other birds and they soon
began spending more and more time flying alone together. Polly’s mother had
gotten used to the handsome, well- mannered boy birds that Polly used to fly
with. She really didn’t like Polly spending so much time with Petey and she
began to make Polly stay at home when they wanted to go flying together. But it
was too late; Polly and Petey had spent so much time together and knew each so
well, that they had already fallen in love.
