The baby bird was just like every other baby bird - awkward and perpetually hungry. She had been in comfort inside a soft, moist egg for a little over one month, with a shell that protected her and kept her warm.

Baby bird grew in the safety of that shell until one day she realized that she had outgrown it, and she found a way to break out. She was young but strong for her size. Even so, it took lots of time in baby bird hours for her to crack out of her hard-shelled tight quarters.

Not long after successfully hatching, baby bird's parents were killed in a wildfire that swept through the trees but, fortunately, she was rescued by firefighters and taken to a rescue farm where she was put in a cage. It just happened to be a turkey cage.

The birds inside the cage welcomed her and quickly informed her that she was a turkey. Thus, began lessons where she was instructed that she was flightless, and should follow the other turkeys who, for want of anything better to do, wandered around eating the corn and seeds scattered daily for their nutrition.

In the following months of what seemed like a somewhat meaningless existence, the young bird came to the conclusion, "I'm stuck here scuffling for food. This is my life." Occasionally she looked up to see other birds flying through the sky. "Wow, that looks fun. I wish I could do that," she would think to herself, but of course none of the other birds in the cage were doing anything even close to flying, so that was that.

The turkeys in the cage laughed at her when she brought up the subject. "Silly turkey. We fly, sure, but not very far and just high enough to get us out of danger or to someplace we need to go," they would tell her. "We live here in this great cage with our family and friends, so we don't even need to fly. All we need to do here is eat!"

During those early months, the young bird grew increasingly depressed. What a miserable existence, she thought. Surely life must be more than this.

When she had grown to full size, she tried spreading her wings in the cage one day, and to her surprise she discovered that if she ran with outspread wings and a run and a hop, she could sort of fly across the cage. "Wow, this turkey life isn't so bad," she thought after one short 'flight.' "But it's still a downer. There's nothing higher that I can become. I am just a turkey."

However, on the very next day she heard the cry of a very large bird flying high above the farm. It sounded faintly familiar. The big soaring bird looked down at the cage and then suddenly tucked her wings and dropped like a stone until she was about five feet above the ground when she stretched out her wings and gracefully landed, then strutted over to the young bird.

"Hey, you're not a turkey," she exclaimed. "I can see that you're an eagle. What are you doing here?"

The younger bird answered, "This is where I grew up and the other birds say I'm a turkey so I must be."

"Well, how do you like being a turkey?" the large bird asked.

"I'm sad all the time. And I'm lonely. The other turkeys are okay, but they don't seem to have any purpose. There's nothing here that gets me excited and makes me want to wake up in the morning. I feel that I'll never go anywhere or be anything but this."

"You feel that way because you weren't born to be a turkey, young one. You were created to be an eagle and eagles don't live on the ground looking for things to eat. We fly high, catching the winds. We can stay up in the air for hours and when we're hungry we can snap our wings back and drop from the sky at high speed to catch our food. It's a game and we generally win. Wanna' try it?"

"I would like to, but I'm a turkey and turkeys can't do that," sighed the young bird.

"If you want to change that, then I will teach you," the large bird offered. "I can come by every morning and show you how."

"Okay," Young Bird exclaimed hopefully, after which the older bird took wing and flew away. Young Bird felt apprehensive, and worried that she would let the older bird down when it turned out that she was a turkey after all.

The next morning Large Bird flew several circles overhead and then tucked her wings and dropped to the ground, landing inside the cage after slowing her descent just a few feet before landing.

"Well, are you ready, young one?" asked Large Bird.

"Yes, I guess so, but I still don't see how you can make a turkey fly," Young Bird replied hesitantly.

"Just watch me and do what I do. I'll show you how."

And with that, Large Bird stretched her wings out wide and started flapping them vigorously.

Young Bird gulped and then reluctantly stretched out her wings and mimicked the older bird.

For the next week, that's all that Large Bird taught her, repeating the same thing over and over. At end of each day's practice Large Bird would launch herself into the air, flapping her gigantic wings in a swooping motion, and flying away.

During the second week of morning practice, Large Bird began to explain to Young Bird the lessons she had learned growing up as an eagle.

"You have to have confidence, young one, that you can fly like an eagle. You have to believe in yourself, that you were made to fly high, to soar, to be one of the most powerful birds alive. It all starts with your thoughts. As you gain confidence those thoughts will take hold in your heart and youÕll be ready for the next steps."

Each morning, Young Bird listened as Large Bird told her about being an eagle. And after each talk they would practice the next step, which was to jump into the air.

The next week, Large Bird told Young Bird to jump up to the roof of the coop inside the cage. It wasn't very high, but it took every ounce of strength and courage for Young Bird to even attempt the feat. For the first several tries she was only able to jump to the edge of the coop roof before falling back and landing in a heap.

Discouraged, Young Bird yelled out in frustration, "I can't do it. It's no use. I'm just a turkey. Why do you keep pushing me to do these things?"

Large Bird answered, "Because I believe in you and I'm trying to show you how to believe in yourself. If you'll be patient and just follow what I teach you I will prove to you what IÕve been telling you all along - you were born to soar."

Young Bird sighed before softly answering, "Okay, I'll try." And with that she summoned up her courage, leapt in the air and landed on the roof, not on the top, mind you, but on one of the sloping sides.

"Nice leap, young one," said Large Bird with a congratulatory whistle.

"I did it," exulted Young Bird. "I did it." And then she jumped off the roof back to the ground.

For the rest of that day Young Bird strutted around the turkey cage with a light heart, feeling good about herself and hoping that this wasn't just a waste of time.

The next two mornings were more practice leaping onto the roof, which Young Bird succeeded in doing with ever higher jumps.

And then, the following week during practice with Large Bird, Young Bird leapt onto the roof and landed right on the ridge of the top, at the very highest point.

"Good job, young one," Large Bird cried out loudly, causing the turkeys in the cage to look at both birds with surprise.

One of the older turkeys shouted out to Young Bird, "Yeah, big deal, you can jump. You're still a turkey but now you're a jumping one. What's that going to do for you, you dumb bird?"

Discouraged, Young Bird jumped down from the roof, dropped her head down and went back to wandering around on the dirt as she had done since she had been adopted.

"Hey!" shouted Large Bird to the older turkey. "Would you like to see my talons in action?" And with that she leaned back, stretched her wings out to full length and extended one set of very sharp claws toward the older turkey who quickly scurried over to the opposite side of the cage.

Large Bird continued shouting to the turkey, "Stop feeding this young bird nonsense! She's an eagle and she was created to be one of the strongest birds in the sky. One day you'll see, when she claims her destiny."

That exchange shut up the naysaying in the turkey cage and the other turkeys quickly resumed minding their own business, scratching for seeds on the ground.

After two days in a row with Young Bird successfully reaching the highest point on the roof of the coop and jumping back to ground, Large Bird said it was time for the fun part.

Large Bird instructed Young Bird to leap to the roof top and keep her wings outstretched. "The next step is very important, but it is also fun," she said. "Watch this." And she leapt up to the rooftop next to Young Bird, kept her wings outstretched and jumped off the roof, flapping her wings slowly, and gliding to a distant part of the large turkey cage.

"See, you just need to have confidence and you can fly a little," she said with a wink. "Give it a try."

Young Bird jumped off the rooftop with her wings flapping and was shocked that she could actually glide several feet across the cage, shouting "Woo hoo! I can fly!" before clumsily landing in a heap.

"Yay! Great job," from Large Bird, ignoring the poor landing. "We're going to do this for a few days and then I'll show you another trick."

So, for the next several mornings, Young Bird practiced leaping to the coop roof, jumping off and gliding to the ground, each time flying a bit further and each time landing better than the previous time.

"Now, we get to the best part," said Large Bird. "Climb on my back and I'm going to fly you to that tall tree outside the cage."

"I can't go there," Young Bird said despondently. "Turkeys are supposed to stay in the cage."

"That's true," Large Bird replied. "But you aren't a turkey. Remember, I've been showing you how to fly like the eagle that you are."

Young Bird sighed. "Okay, I guess I have to trust you." And she climbed onto Large Bird's back after which the big eagle flew with her passenger to a large limb high in the tallest tree in the farmyard.

Young Bird took a big gulp, looking down from where they were perched high in the tree. Amazingly, she could see everything on the ground really well, as if she was a lot closer. She had never been this high off the ground in her life and she was astonished that her vision was extraordinarily good.

"Okay, young one, here's where all of your learning pays off. You know what you have been able to do, and now you have confidence because you did some things you didn't think you could. So next, I'm going to show you how to fly from this tree. You watch me and after a little bit I'll call to you and then I want you to do exactly what you saw me do."

Large Bird suddenly spread her wings and gracefully pushed off of the limb, flapping her wings and then keeping them outstretched, soaring and flying, turning in big circles through the air.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh," exclaimed Young Bird and then spreading her wings, she pushed off from the limb, flapped her wings and soon was flying close to Large Bird, mimicking what she had seen the older bird do. At first, she was scared and also shocked to see that she could fly, but here she was soaring and circling in the air following the large bird. Her heart was pounding in her feathered chest but there was something else in her heart now - pride and confidence. She was starting to believe that she would never be the same and maybe, just maybe, she might not have to go back to the turkey cage.

After a half hour of flying and soaring, Large Bird signaled to Young Bird to follow her to a nest on a nearby treetop. Young Bird landed in the nest clumsily, but she was surprised to feel right at home. "This is your nest, young eagle," said Large Bird. "I'm going to catch some food for you and then I will start teaching you how to get your own food. But first, I'm going to let you rest and then we'll fly some more."

The next several days were filled with flying, gliding, soaring and watching Large Bird swoop down and catch a variety of prey, bringing each meal back to the nest where they both picked apart the small critters and birds. After a couple of weeks of practice Young Bird was able to catch a mouse, then a snake and then a squirrel.

The food was so good that over the next several months Young Bird grew bigger and stronger and more independent. Large Bird now only visited occasionally, mainly to show Young Bird how to repair and replace the nesting materials.

Eventually, Young Bird flew away from the nest and, soaring many miles away, she found a tall tree, gathered nesting materials, and began to set up her new home, employing the lessons she had learned from Large Bird.

And so, several weeks later on a Tuesday morning a man and his two children were hiking in the vicinity of the nest when they heard a loud chirping, whistling sound high in the air and looked up to see an enormous bird soaring and wheeling above them.

"Dad, what's that?" asked both kids as they craned their necks to watch the bird.

"That, kids, is an eagle, one of the most powerful and majestic birds in the sky," answered the father, pointing up to Young Bird.

His son smiled and said, "I'll be an eagle when I get older."

His father smiled and patted him affirmatively on the shoulder.

His daughter looked up at Young Bird and with a big smile said, "That's what I'm going to be when I grow up, too. I'm going to be an eagle!"

The man put his arms around both kids and looking down at them he said, "Yes, you are. You will both be eagles, and I will teach you how to fly."

So, here's the point of this story.

It's hard to soar with eagles when you're surrounded by turkeys.

Yet, there is an eagle beating in your heart. You were born to fly high, to be strong and to do great things.

So, believe in yourself.

Find the older bird that is willing to show you how to really fly.

Then go and change your life - become the eagle you were created to be!