Once upon a time, there was one of the beautiful valleys full of flowers and large trees with long branches and green leaves, where a small bird was born in a nest at the top of one of the tree branches. That nest was full of eggs. On a bright spring morning, the small birds that emerged from the eggs were born, except only one that was delayed in coming out, as it took a little longer to break the egg and see the light of morning.
That bird that was delayed in coming out was distinguished from his brothers by being slower than them in learning things. He would understand matters after the matter took some time from him. All the birds were happy, including the small bird. In the morning of one day, when the birds had grown enough, they had to learn an important lesson: flying.
The small bird was nervous and excited at the same time because he knew that learning to fly is something important, but he felt some fear. The birds initially learned how to move their wings while they were in the nest, then moved on to making some small jumps and staying elevated in the air a few centimeters above the ground.
Each bird began to learn one after another until it was the small bird’s turn, whom his mother was watching closely, because she knew that he sometimes took a little longer in learning. At that time, the small bird was nervous and very afraid. He had to jump from the nest into the air, and he feared his wings would not respond well. The attempt failed as he fell quickly without completing his jump, while his mother and brothers shouted: Open your wings!
The bird tried to open his wings, but one of the tree branches struck him. The mother tried to fly and hold him to help him, but he fell forcefully this time and one of his wings was injured. This incident made the bird unable to fly again, because his wing was injured forever.
The small bird always walked on the ground and did not learn to fly. He only climbed on branches of low heights. The bird grew without learning to fly, and that bird enjoyed a beautiful shape and colored feathers, but he was still walking on the ground. Despite his brothers’ attempts for him to learn to fly, he refused on the pretext that it would hurt his wing and that they would be failed attempts through which he could not fly.
While the bird was walking one afternoon, he heard the voice of one of his brothers from above the tree shouting, his body hanging between the branches, saying: Help me. The bird said: I will go search for someone to help you. There was no one near him at that time. His brother hanging in the tree shouted: No, there is no time. Hurry to help me.
At that time, the bird closed his eyes and tried to move his wings. He knew he would not be able to do that, but he was surprised that he was gliding in the air he felt on his face. He opened his eyes to find himself flying. Indeed, he reached his brother and helped him. He discovered that he was always able to fly, but he did not try because he believed he would not be able to do that.
The story is translated from Spanish titled: El pajarito que no podía volar