It had been a week since that encounter with Mmunye. Sseggwanga was depressed. Every chicken knew Mmunye to be the kindest eagle that had ever been but this was cruel.
His response to the diligent self effort of transcending Kiggala was ruthless.
“What is impossible for chickens is possible with eagles”
How indulgent, heartless could one be? It was like he was saying ‘I am the only one that can fly as for you, you can go hang!’
That last encounter troubled him. He refused to fly to the top of Kiggula. The Kokoolirooko chorus was no longer appealing to him. Mubiika-maji, his good friend, asked him what was wrong but he would only shake his head.
One day, as if by a revelation, it occurred to him that Mmunye was not a chicken! How could he understand chicken and what they went through? He felt quite liberated by that. Mmunye never said that He should give up trying! ‘Why on earth did I think that I had to give up?’, he asked himself
He remembered Mmunye’s first words about how to overcome Kiggala. “You know what to do..”
YEES! I actually knew what to do! He said “Go and eat the deep worm”
“O my goodness! Why was I troubling myself? I already knew the answer!” He thought.
Early the next morning before dawn, Sseggwanga woke up in the morning and flapped straight to the top of Kiggula. He went straight into the Kookolirooko groove. It is like he had never stopped. He felt the same satisfaction he had always felt. But again from the top of Kiggula, he saw the strugglers. Going about everyday doing nothing but chickening! ‘These lousy chickens!’, he thought. He was longing for the night, because he would have a go at Kiggala.
This time it would be a success. He dug up all the deep worms he could get and stuffed them one after another in his mouth not even caring that he would get a stomach upset. He had to be an example to the chickens. He had to transcend Kiggala
At night, he could see Kiggala in the distance as he waited for the rest of the chickens to sleep. That didn’t take very long. Soon he was on his way strutting towards Kiggala. In his mind he could envision the glory and splendor when he has overcome. He could imagine himself with the most exquisite Kookolirooko rendition. He would possibly try the exotic interpretation Cock-A-Doodle-Doo. He would then be a light to the other chicken and show them how it is done. Surely that was not selfish at all.
Seeing Kiggala at a distance, he felt like a Boeing 747 on a runway cleared for takeoff. He narrowed his eyes and headed for the wall running and flapping. Flap harder, he told himself.
It didn’t take long but to say it was unexpected would be a lie. There was deep fellowship between wall and chicken as Sseggwanga rammed into Kiggala. He hadn’t felt like that in a long time and he had rammed into it countless times but this was really painful.
Sseggwanga lay panting at the foot of the wall in pain and feeling defeated. Then the voice he had dreaded came
“I was wondering when you would come back”…O no. It was Mmunye!
“You have come to taunt me again, Mmunye?”
“No, I actually came to have fellowship with you..No pun intended, considering the fellowship you just had with Kiggala”
“So now you are making fun of me”
“No, we are having fellowship. Do you always have to come in the night?”
“Well, yes. As you know, everyone thinks that I can fly over Kiggala as well. I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself”
Then Ssegwanga said, “Mmunye, you are the kindest eagle and everyone knows. I know that you have the secret to flying over the wall”
“Do you remember what I told you last time?” Mmunye asked.
“Yes I do, ‘What is impossible with chickens is possible with eagles’”
“Exactly, that is the secret.”, he replied, “For you to fly over the wall you must be an eagle”
“You mean I must become an eagle?” Sseggwanga asked.
“No, you must BE AN EAGLE. You must be born again as an eagle”, he continued, “You must be born of an eagle, know that you are an eagle, eat like an eagle, and be parented by an eagle”
“That is impossible! You mean I have to go back to being in an egg and somehow miraculously be put into mama eagle so that I can be born an eagle? Ridiculous!”
“Sseggwanga listen to me! Chickens give birth to chickens and eagles give birth to eagles.” He told him looking at him straight in the eye. “Remember that! Do not be surprised when I tell you that you must be born again as an eagle.”
“Sseggwanga, do you hear the wind?” Mmunye asked.
“Yes I do”, Sseggwanga replied
“To be born an eagle is like the wind”
“The wind blows wherever it wants because it has not limits or boundaries. Your eyes are set on Kiggala as the epitome of achievement. There are even higher heights than Kiggala. An eagle does not have upper limits. It flaps its wings and never sets its eyes on an upper limit. It soars until it is a moving dot in the sky”
Mmunye continued “You cannot tell where the wind is going or from where it comes. You, Sseggwanga, are concerned with what you should be eating to fly over the wall but an eagle will not give a thought about its flap. It doesn’t need to know from where and how the strength to fly comes. Without a thought an eagle flaps its wings and it expects to fly because it is an eagle. That is all it needs to know.”
“The wind has no law. No restriction and no containment.
It is free. It is not controlled. It is un-fettered. So is the eagle. There is
no law within the eagle telling it that it can’t fly. Flying is not what makes
it an eagle. It flies because it is an eagle. Understand this. It is first and
foremost an eagle”
Sseggwanga was dazzled. This was an overdose.
But that was not the end. Mmunye was not finished yet.
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