The Lost Baby

These are old Celtic teaching tales and this is the way I choose to tell them today:

THE LOST BABY

A long, long time ago, in a land far from this land, in a country farmyard, a duck sat on her eggs beside a little pond, waiting patiently for her babies to hatch. When the eggs hatched she had six pretty, yellow, normal babies, and one big ugly baby that just didn’t look right.

However, the ugly baby followed her, and swam as well as her pretty ducklings, so she allowed it to stay with her.

The big baby tried hard to fit in, but he just didn’t look right. His siblings laughed at him, at his big feet and his clumsy ways, so he tried harder to be liked. But he just didn’t look right, and when the other young birds in the farmyard laughed at the clumsy baby, his brothers and sisters blamed him for the laughter and pecked him.

The older birds in the farmyard couldn’t help noticing, and of course they commented to the worried mother duck. She explained that the egg was bigger than normal, and took longer to hatch, and maybe that was the problem, but she still worried about her ugly son and tried to hide him by walking between him and the other birds when they went to the pond every day.

But the ugly baby couldn’t be hidden. He was so much bigger than his nest mates, and he just didn’t look right.

The hens sniggered. The geese cackled. The other duck families laughed, and finally the mother duck pushed the ugly son away, and told him he must stay away, or he would ruin his siblings’ life, and ruin her standing in the fowl farmyard.

So the little bird sadly left his first family, and went to find another.

He tried to join the wild ducks on the pond, but they laughed at him, and said he wasn’t a real duck, and pecked him to chase him away.

He tried to join the hens in the next farmhouse, but they clucked and criticised, and turned their backs on him to look after their pretty little chicks, that couldn’t even swim. He tried to impress the hens by showing them how well he could swim, but they just weren’t interested and turned their backs on him.

He left the second farmyard and waddled on, further and further, very sad and very alone, until he came to another pond beside the wild forest. He saw a flock of birds and hoped so very much to find a family to love him, but was afraid of being rejected again. However, the lost baby was so lonely that he picked up his courage and tried to join the wild geese, but they honked at him, and told him to go find his own kind.

I don’t know who I am, cried the little bird, sad and lonely and lost.

Why, you’re a swan, said the gander. Don’t you know any swans?

No, said the little lost bird, as he swam sadly away to hide in the reeds. It helped a little bit to have a name at last, but he was still alone and still a frightened baby.

The geese were not cruel birds, but they had their own lives to lead, so they left the little lost bird alone. Although he wasn’t part of their flock, he was at least glad that they were there on the lake, and he would watch them from his safe hiding place in the reeds, where he wouldn’t be seen and annoy the other birds into pecking him and chasing him away.

One day, a magical thing happened. The little lost bird thought that angels had come to rest on the lake, because he had never seen such beautiful winged creatures. They had big, strong, angel wings, and long, long, necks, and big black liquid eyes, and were so powerful, and so graceful, and so beautiful, that he nearly cried from the beauty of them, as they landed on the lake and swam gracefully there.

He peeped out from the reeds as the geese gabbled to each other, then shrank back in fear as one of the ganders, braver than his fellows, swam forward to the beautiful visitors and talked to them. From the body language, it looked as though the gander was telling the beautiful visitor something about the reed bed he had made his home, and the visitors were all looking towards him and moving towards his reeds.

He was so sad to lose another home, even though the reed bed wasn’t ideal it had been his home for months. But the beautiful visitors wouldn’t want him around, so he sniffed and swallowed his tears, and prepared to leave again.

But then one of the visitors honked at him, and he didn’t sound threatening. Then another of the visitors honked, and the little lost bird stopped, and looked around, and was suddenly surrounded by beautiful white birds that weren’t pecking him but were grooming him, smoothing his feathers, stroking him with their beaks, honking greetings and welcome and love. And the little lost bird suddenly realised that he was one of them, that these beautiful angel birds were swans too. He had finally found his family, and he joyfully honked and groomed and preened along with all the other swans, there on the little lake in the middle of the woods. And if you are a lonely lost baby bird too, may you soon find your own family.

May you discern with compassion.

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