Once upon a time, the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world. So they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming – in fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running. This caused his web feet to be badly worn, so he was only average in swimming. The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles, because of so much make-up work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but he encountered constant frustration in flying class, because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He developed “charlie horses” from over exertion and soonly got a C in climbing and a D in running. The eagle was a problem child and was severely disciplined for being a nonconformist. In climbing classes he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there.

Accepting ourselves as we are (with our limitations) allows full expression of our potential within our boundaries. When we stop trying to change what is not within our power to change, we can redirect our energy to what is within our control. When we recognize that we may not have the ability to run like a horse, we may discover that we have the potential to fly like an eagle.

It takes courage to give up trying to meet expectations in order to become what we were created to be. If we search ourselves for the particular gifts we have – to find what we do very well, to see ourselves as rich, abundant sources of physical, mental, social, and spiritual opportunities and possibilities - then life becomes an adventure.

Miller, David and Blum, Kenneth (2000) OVERLOAD. Attention Deficit Disorderand the Addictive Brain.

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