Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life

Once upon a time the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world.  So they organized a school.  

They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming, and flying.  To make it easier to administer, all the animals took all subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming.  In fact, he was better than his instructor was!  However, he made only passing grades in flying, and was very poor in running.  Since he was so slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running.  This caused his webbed feet to badly worn so he became only average in swimming.  But "average" was quite acceptable, therefore nobody worried about it--except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so much makeup work to do in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but he encountered constant frustration in flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down.  He developed "charley horses" from overexertion, so he only got a "C" in climbing and a "D" in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was severely disciplined for being a non-conformist.  In climbing classes, he beat all the others to the top, but insisted on using his own way of getting there!

By Charles Swindoll

PS.  There is a morale to all fables.  And so, you must be wondering what is the morale here.  We are talented in our given rights, and we will be happier when we try not to compete with others that are naturally more gifted in athletics, music, speech, or whatever it is.   Follow this simple rule: “Find a vacuum and expand in it.”  We all have a special mission in life.  The trick is finding out what it is.