A Crucial Life Lesson I Learned from a Chicken

Hey everyone! I’m currently hitting the books, studying for my pre-midterm exams right now and I didn’t have any post scheduled for today. Hopefully, I’ll have a new one next Wednesday but in the meantime, here’s a short post I did… *checks the date* whoa, this was last year??? It’s that old?! Whaaaaaat

Ahem. Anyway. If you don’t know yet, I have an incredibly soft spot for chickens. And birds, in general*. I miss my chicken, Maui**, sooo much. And here’s a life lesson I learned from hanging out with them last year. Enjoy! 🙂

*And cats. And fishies. And bunnies. And dogs (so long as they don’t bark at me or bite me. I still have a bit of trauma from a childhood incident)
**I call her that because she has this tribal-like design on the feathers around her neck and Moana was the jam last year. She’s also a human-attention-seeker, much like Maui the demigod.

You read that right. I learned something from Scrabble before, this isn't unusual already, right? | Life Lesson, Inspiration

The chickens in my grandfather’s backyard all sleep in our neighbor’s fruit tree. It is the tallest tree and the one with the most numerous branches in their vicinity. It’s like their penthouse suite. Overnight security and so high up from the ground.

There was the youngest of all, basically still a chick, that I call Tom Hanks* and he wanted to follow the older chickens up in the tree. But he was still too young and his tiny wings couldn’t take him that far up yet. I watched him go farther and farther up. He perched on our neighbor’s wooden fence and tried to fly towards the tree. But he fell.

Later, he gave up and had to retreat to his old nest. He was sleeping on that nest that night.

Observing Tom Hanks made me think of the goals we set for ourselves and the obstacles we had to face in our lives.

I once mentioned that I don’t agree with people who said that you “only think” that obstacles are big. Like obstacles have some weird deceptive power that make them look big. “It’s all in our heads,” they say.

I think not. I think obstacles are big and they’re supposed to be.

Because maybe, when we were facing those obstacles, we were just like Tom Hanks (the chick above, not the actor); still tiny and our wings can’t take us anywhere far.

Maybe we had to fall several times before we reach that treetop-penthouse.

Maybe we still don’t have the strength to overcome those obstacles.

Maybe we still have to grow.

Because really, isn’t that how life is? No one joins the Game of Life and immediately starts at level 99. And not everyone starts the game of life altogether. You could still be at level 18 and you’re already comparing yourself to someone at level 50. Give yourself a break.

If there was something I’ve learned from Tom Hanks the chick, it’s that when you fall down, you don’t give up. You go back and rest. You get to live another day and grow.

Who knows? Maybe by the next sunset you’ll finally reach that branch.

Happy obstacle-conquering, awesome peeps!

*I call him Tom Hanks because among the five hatchlings, he was the only one to survive from getting eaten by huge field rats and cats. Basically the Castaway/Survivor, amirite??

Comments

Tom Hanks haha that’s so funny! anyway, great post 🙂 /KM

Elm says:

That was actually amazing 🙂

Kate says:

Aww thank you Elm 🙂

Great post! What a wonderful and humorous way to describe the road to success!

This is so wacky! I love it! Xx

ignitedmoth says:

This is such a fantastic post. 😀
I agree about how big goals are not simply difficult in our heads. We need to work at things and grow (and sometimes fall) to get to those big goals and chicken penthouses we aspire for. lol
It reminds me of this author I like named Kevin Hearne. He’s been writing this Urban Fantasy series for a while called The Iron Druid Chronicles (and it’s great!!), but now he’s set to put out an epic fantasy series as well. This epic fantasy series is one he’s been wanting to write for a while, apparently even before The Iron Druid Chronicles, but he felt he wasn’t ready yet as a writer to tell that tale. So he waited and worked on other stories in the mean time. Now he’s ready, and I am beyond excited to see what he came up with for his epic fantasy book, A Plague of Giants. It just goes to show that some goals need time (and a lot of work) to be achieved. Simply thinking “I can do it” isn’t always the right answer (though it’s a great attitude to have and will certainly help some.) 🙂

Sunset says:

Awesome! 🙂

Sunset says:

Also, love how your chicken is called Maui. Best name ever.

This is the best thing ever! I love this post and gosh you are deep! I would have been like the chicken fell… then walked away. You sound like such an amazing person. I am so glad that I stumbled into your blog. Its beautiful!!!

Kate says:

Thank you so much, Tessa!! And gorsh, you make me blush. I’m happy you love the post <3

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