The Mother and Her Younglings

Once upon a time, a mother bird had hatched six heavenly younglings.

Immediately, upon entering the world, the younglings began to cry out food. Overcome with joy by the younglings cries for food the mother bird set out to acquire food for her young.

When she returned she had quailed their pangs of hunger. And afterwards they were content.

The next day arrived and the ravishingly radiant face of the morning sun greeted the mother bird. But that peaceful encounter was soon cut short by the younglings persistent cries of hunger.

So, once again the mother bird set out to get food for her young. And once again she returned to quail the the cries of her young. And again the young were contented upon being fed.

The mother bird continued her routine day-in and day-out of nurturing and attending to her young. And as a result, they grew. And grew. And grew. And grew.

They continued to grow until one day the nest became too congested.

So, one day, mother bird said, “My young, it is time for you all to leave the nest?”

“Why,” asked one of the young.

“Because you all have grown so big and now the nest has become too congested.”

“But we feel perfectly fine here in the nest, mother,” said another.

“But you will feel better once you all leave the nest and explore the world.”

“But we do not know how to fly,” said another youngling.

“Fear not my young for you are already equipped with all the tools that you will need to succeed. Now, you all just need to take the first step,” said mother bird, assuredly.

So the next day after the mother’s talk with her young, she gathered them all together.

And all at once, she urged her young to take their first step out of the nest.

Quite naturally, at first, the younglings were terrified.

However despite their fears, with a grin on her face, the mother calmly reassured them of their readiness and pushed them all out the nest at once.

At first, the younglings panicked.

“What are we going to do?” they shouted in unison but they were unable to answer their own question.

And as they continued to fall faster and faster toward the ground their panic increased because they did not know how to fly. They continued to panic until….

The eldest bird began to relentlessly flap his wings out of desperation. And from what happened next as a result of his desperate attempt, shocked both the eldest bird and his siblings.

He began to fly!

Quickly, the other birds followed suit and flapped their wings as well. And just like the eldest bird, they, too, began to fly.

Having narrowly escaped death, the younglings were excited by their newly-found ability.

They flew high.

They flew low.

They even flew circles around one another.

And eventually, they flew by the nest to show their mother what they had learned before they had flew off in different directions to explore the world.

A year had passed when the younglings had returned to share and regale their mother with their tales and experiences in the world.

Although the tales and experiences that the birds shared with one another varied, they all had agreed with their mother’s original statement that they would feel better once they all left the nest and explored the world.

Moral of the story:

Everybody is content with good until they meet better.

P.S. I realize that while writing this fable that there are multiple interpretations and morals that can be taken away from this story. As such, I ask: What was the moral (or morals) that you had taken from the story?