I was looking for something positive and inspirational to share this morning so I was going through my old emails and found a message from someone that I used to email from time to time. His name was Hamza Hassan. The way that I “met” him is that he is a huge fan of Chicken Soup for the Soul books and would often email the writers of the various stories that were published. So he wrote after one of my stories was published and we kept communicating from time to time, sharing stories about his life in Saudi Arabia and mine here, in the U.S.
Anyway, I found this story in one of the messages he sent me so I made a meme out of it. I think it’s a really, really great inspirational message for all of us. I know the meme is difficult to read, so here is the story as he sent it:
The Lazy Eagle
The king of a village was gifted two small beautiful eagles by one of his assistants. The two eagles were immediately handed to a very well-known trainee to teach them the art of soaring very high, and several months later, the trainee came back to the king and said, “One of the eagles is now soaring very high in the sky, while the other one still sits on the branch of a large oak tree and never leaves the tree.”
The King called all bird specialists in the village to coax the eagle to leave the branch, but none of them succeeded. Then, an idea came to his mind to seek the advice of a wise man who lived in the far corner of the village. The next morning, the king saw the eagle flying happily, and when he asked the wise man what he did to make the eagle fly, the man said, “I simply broke the branch where the eagle has been sitting.”
We find ourselves sitting on the branches of fear, hesitation, and unwilling to change in just the same way. Unless we break such negative branches within us, we’ll never discover the tremendous energy that enables us to soar very high in the open sky of success.
Author Unknown, Translation by Hamza Balol
I googled the story this morning to try to find out who wrote it and I found a website that listed the poem and gave credit for this translation to someone named Hamza Balol with this descriptions : “Hamza Balol is a Chicken Soup for the Soul fan and he got the chance to read more than 4,000 short pieces from this best-selling series since he joined their daily newsletter more than 11 years ago. He currently works as International Purchasing Coordinator for a medical company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for more than 13 years.”
I’m going to try to email the gentleman who was emailing me to see if they are the same person but it seems like they must be.
Anyway, I hope you like the message.
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