This moving story was submitted by a very inspiring client of ours.
It had to be done.
She knew it was coming. The stage in a bird’s life when they have to leave the mother nest and enter the unknown real world. Time was ticking and in every waking second she knew she was one step closer to embarking on this terrifying journey that she has dreaded her whole life but something that she couldn’t get out of.
Maya, a budgie bird born with beautiful blue eyes as a little girl’s Easter Sunday dress sparkled, with bright yellow feathers that sparkled like the ocean at dawn and a beak that was as sharp as a blade that wasn’t too small or big but just right. You could say she was almost perfect. Well not exactly. Maya wasn’t a normal bird, there was something wrong with her, she was born with only one wing.
Having only one wing made Maya’s life a living hell. She never had it easy growing up. She was always the last one to finish a meal because she wasn’t as fast as her siblings who were all born with two wings. She was the slowest to pick up essential skills and was always the one who got teased from her family.
If only she could be normal, just like everyone else, life would have been so much easier. She was tired of being a loser, an outcast, a monster that people feared. In the eyes of society she is a hideous beast. If only they would have looked at her differently, she would have seen herself in a different light.
As the sun begins to rise Maya is awoken by the newborn flowers that blossom in all sorts of colours and sizes, separately they were plain but when united they were diverse.
And with one whiff of this beautiful aroma she knew it was time for her to take that jump
But how?
It was hard enough for a bird to learn to fly in the sky for the first time, how could she learn to fly with only one wing.
What if she fell when trying and could never get back up again?
She looked down below, maybe she shouldn’t step into to the real world, maybe she should just stay in this nest forever because it was safe and familiar.
But then she thought to herself, even though it wasn’t easy she survived her whole life with one wing, if she jumped out of the nest and fell what was the worst that could happen?
What she loses another wing too?
She was already known as the freak and used her legs to do most essential skills so it’s not like she absolutely needed the wing.
So she did it!
And like expected she fell flat on her face!
When she woke up she found herself laying in the green grass, she felt that cold wet mud that felt like it stuck to her face.
She wanted to give up so bad, just lay in there in the mud. It was cold and dark as the feeling of frost freezing your body on a stormy winter night. It was as if she was stuck in a big black hole that kept getting bigger every time she tried to get up.
But no she couldn’t, that wasn’t her- if having one wing taught her anything it was to keep trying and never give up no matter what life handed her.
So at last she comes up with an idea.
The reason why she could not fly was that with only one wing, weight was needed to be put on to her other side in order for her to be balanced. Using what she found on the ground, she constructed with her legs a prosthetic wing using twigs and leaves and used wet mud to hold it together.
Just like that with one try she was able to fly and sore high in the sky.
It was then at that moment that she had her flaws but it was her flaws that made her special, that helped overcome her obstacles, that helped her learn not to be afraid of failure because it will only help her grow and is only a stepping stone to success. It helped her realize that people would judge her but that was the price of being unique.
She wouldn’t want to be anyone else.
Having one wing made Maya’s life difficult but …
It had to be done.
