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Rob Greaves NLP Practitioner Autumn 2004

There was once a chicken which spent her days intently observing the dusty ground looking for good things to eat. From time to time the bird would tip her head to one side and gaze up into the sky with one eye while the other looked at the ground.

There were other birds in the sky, darting swallows, tumbling choughs and melodious larks, as well as crows and the occasional dove. But the bird which caught Chicken's attention was an eagle wheeling lazily in the warm air. 'What I would give to be able to do that!' thought Chicken as she watched, a thought quickly followed by the sad realisation that she didn't have much to give. Being a bird of considerable brain Chicken began thinking and soon realised that she had quite a lot in common with an eagle. To begin with they were both birds with keen eyes and strong beaks and they shared the same anatomy. Even though Chicken wasn't a strong flier she remembered that she had cousins such as the grouse and partridge which were reasonably airworthy. And, better still she wouldn't have to learn to sing.

Chicken decided not to say anything of her ambition to the other birds. Instead she began imagining what the earth would look like from ten thousand feet up, how the river would appear as a silver thread, the fields and forest like a quilt covering the earth and how the mountains would seem like crumpled paper. In fact Chicken became so lost in this contemplation that she forgot to eat and by and by began to lose weight and stop laying.

Chicken had enough sense to realise that she could never be an eagle but that by adopting enough of its characteristics she might be able to act like one. Stopping laying eggs was an important step since Chicken now was light enough to fly up to the top of the enclosure in which she lived. Some of the other birds, disturbed by the flapping and panting, broke off from their foraging to see Chicken gliding rather gracefully down to the ground on the far side of the wire.

The birds didn't like what they saw and began to cluck like the old hens that they were. 'You come back here where it's safe'; 'Fox'll have you'; ' You'll regret it' were among the comments that Chicken heard as she headed east. 'The world is an abundant place; to think otherwise is to make it so', she reminded herself.

Chicken realised that there were even some areas in which she was better equipped than an eagle, walking being one of them. Chicken hopped and strutted until she was out of sight of the farm and dusk was beginning to gather. As she flapped up into a small tree looking for somewhere safe to spend the night, Chicken remembered another feature he shared with the eagle; they both nested off the ground. Wondering whether eagles sleep with their heads tucked under their wing Chicken nodded off.

Next morning Chicken felt that she should lose no time in developing her flying skills. So she clambered a little way up a nearby crag and launched into the air. Thump. ' Not a failure, just chicken feedback' she thought as she picked herself up from the dirt. Being a determined bird she tried again and again but by noon, with her beak sore and her feet bruised from too much feedback she thought to herself: 'This isn't working. I need to try something different and what I need here is a little help'.

So she imagined herself with the Little Red Rooster hearing the advice that he was giving. And then, understanding that we are part of a system and that whatever happens in one part will necessarily affect the other parts, she met cousin Partridge.

'What brings you into the big wide world?' asked Cousin Partridge. 'I want to soar like an eagle' Chicken replied. 'Well, it's good to know what you want, because if you don't you may end up somewhere else', said Cousin Partridge, 'and that does sound like a pretty ambitious project'. "Isn't it better to lose your life to your passion rather than to lose your passion?' replied Chicken. 'And I was wondering if you could help me with my flying?' 'Delighted to be of assistance' was Cousin Partridge's unhesitating reply. So the cousins set to and by teatime Chicken was taking off and gliding like a good'un.

Suddenly Cousin Partridge looked alarmed and lumbered into the air with much flapping and squawking as a shadow moved quickly across the ground. Chicken was just wondering what all the fuss was about when she felt something grab her neck and back and lift her off the ground. Up and up she went, gaining height rapidly with each powerful beat of the eagle's wings.

Realising that there was nothing to be done Chicken relaxed and open her eyes and looking down saw the river like a silver thread, the fields and forest like a patchwork quilt and the mountains like crumpled paper, just as she had imagined them. 'I'm well off the map here' she thought, 'and what a place to be!' Up and up, and the higher they went the more Chicken's sense of wonder grew. Finally the intensity of the wing beats increased and with pinions flared the eagled descended gently to it's eyrie and released Chicken.

The eagle was surprised to find that the eyrie was empty and that Chicken which he had intended as food for his eaglet, was standing with her chest puffed out and her beak up, glaring back at him rather than looking cowed and terrified for her life as his victims usually did. He took a step back when Chicken said 'I wouldn't have missed that for anything. I want you to teach me to soar.'…… 'How do you know when to begin?' The eagle was completely thrown by this question and took another step back, falling into the sky. Spellbound, Chicken watched the eagle plummet with wings folded for 100 feet then twisting his body slowly spread his wings and lazily circle in an up draught until he was back at the eyrie. ' How do you do that?' asked Chicken. The eagle could see that this was going to be no ordinary lunch. He was intrigued by the questions because he had never thought about how he flew; it was just something that he did, something that his parents had taught him.

He realised how sorry he was to have missed seeing his eaglet take to the air for the first time, and thought about his own maiden flight.

'It's about keeping your eye on the horizon and feeling where the air is rising. If you relax and trust your wings you will be fine. If you flap you lose lift and down you go.' 'How do you feel where the air is rising?' asked Chicken. 'Well, it tends to come up the front of cliffs which is why we like to live here, and anywhere that the sun warms the ground the air will rise. So rising air smells of the land and you feel weightless when you're in the right place'.

So knowing what a soaring eagle saw and felt and smelled, Chicken understood that our reality is only what we believe to be true, and that we are free to create the world that we want. She drew a deep breath, spread her wings and took to the sky.