We are all called to be Eagles

"Don’t fly like a barnyard hen when you can soar like an eagle." The Way by St. Josemaria Escriva Ch 1 Par 7

One day a farmer found an eagle’s egg and thinking it one of his chicken’s eggs, placed it in a nest in his chicken coop. The egg hatched and the baby eagle grew up thinking that he was a chicken. The eagle did what the chickens did. It scratched the dirt for seeds and worms and it did not fly more than a few feet because this is what chickens did.

One day he saw an eagle flying gracefully and majestically in the open sky. He asked a chicken friend “What is that beautiful bird?” The chicken said “That is an eagle. He is an outstanding bird, but you can’t fly like him because you are just a chicken.” So the eagle never gave a second thought to it and lived and died as a chicken, depriving himself of his heritage.

As a mother I wanted to keep my children in the chicken coop forever. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was to drop them off in the university. I knew that from that moment on, life would never be the same. They were no longer mine. Now they belonged to the world. The older two have already graduated and they no longer live within the safe boundaries of the chicken coop. The youngest is still in college, all the way in Connecticut, and every time he returns to the chicken coop for a few days or weeks, I dread having to release him out into the big, dangerous world.

But none of us are meant to be chickens. We are all called to be eagles. Just like my parents allowed me to fly off their chicken coop when I married my husband 31 years ago, I must also allow my children to fly off the nest and reach their full potential. I learned a long time ago that my children don't belong to me. They belong to God. He allowed me to borrow them for a little while but He never intended for them to be chickens, confined to the limitations of a chicken coop. He wants them and all of us to reach our full potential, to soar as high as we can fly and for that we must become the eagles that God created us to be.

It is terrifying because the world is a scary place and I always feel that my sons and daughter are not ready for it. But there comes a time when we all must face the world on our own. We must choose right from wrong. And we must be held accountable for our choices. The only way we learn to fly is by jumping off the nest on our own. And if we crash, we need to keep trying until we get it right. But for this we need room to grow and room to fly. If we remain forever within the confines of the chicken coop, yes we will be safe but we will never reach our full potential. We will never achieve the goals and dreams that God has planned for us.

So as difficult as it was for the selfish mother within me, the day came when I had to push my kids from the safety enclosure of the chicken coop out into the big unknown world. I had to push them off the nest and encourage them that they could soar as high as their dreams could take them. And even though deep within me I still sometimes fear that they may crash or that they may make the wrong choice, I have given them the gift of the push. They are free to soar and they are free to make their own choices. And in the meantime I pray, that even if once in a while they make mistakes, that they learn from them just like I learned from my own. After all, "nadie aprende por cabeza ajena." (You can't learn from another's mistakes).

Don't hold back the push for those you love. Everyone needs to be encouraged to soar like an eagle. Trust God that He will lead them as they fly to their full potential. And He will carry them in the palm of His hand.