This morning I picked Annina! Annina told me with her picture, that it was taken last August in her home village of Vals during a hike with her mom.
Sitting with the photo, immediately a story came to my mind – “Wings are for flying” from Jorge Bucay (in the original it is a story about father and son, I changed it):
When she got older, her mother said to her:
-My daughter: not everyone is born with wings. No one is forcing you to fly, but I think it would be a shame for you to limit yourself to walking when God gave you wings.
-But I don’t know how to fly – replied the daughter.
-True… – said the mother. And so she led her daughter on foot up a mountain to the edge of an abyss.
-Do you see, my daughter? It’s empty. When you want to fly, come here, take a deep breath and jump.
The daughter had doubts.
-What if I fall?
-Although you will fall, you won’t die. When your cuts and bruises heal you will be stronger for the next attempt.- the mother answered.
The daughter went back to town to see her friends, whom she had walked with all his life.
The most close-minded ones said to her: Are you crazy? Why? Your mother has gone half-mad… Why do you need to fly? What’s it good for? Forget it…
Her best friend tried to reason with her: Even if your mum is right, it’s too dangerous! Wouldn’t it be better to start more slowly? …from the top of the stairs or from up on a tree, but… from a cliff?
This advice made sense to her, so she climbed a tree and summoning all of his courage, she jumped. She spread her wings, and beat them with all his might but fell awkwardly to the ground.
Walking along with a big bump on her forehead she saw her mother.
-You lied to me!- she said- I can’t fly. I tried and look what happened. Look at this bruise! I’m not like you. My wings are just for decoration.
-My daughter – said the mother – In order to fly you have to create space in the open air so that your wings can really spread out. It’s like a parachute. They only work from a high altitude.
To fly you have to begin taking risks.
If you don’t want to, maybe the best thing is just to give up, and keep walking forever.
I know, Annina doesn’t need this story, just I wanted to share it, as I really love it a lot!
… to that we all create our spaces and begin taking risks!
<3 Susanne