The Red-Belly & The Thorn Tree

Here is the fable I have come up with. Let me know what you think.

The Red Belly And The Thorn Tree

In the beginning when the earth was new and all of the animals and plants of the earth were new, a beautiful magical tree grew in the dry part of the land of Africa called the savannah. It was the the Acacia Tree. It had the most beautiful flowers and the most delicious fruit of all the plants of the savannah. It also had many thorns. Not many animals could endure the thorns and eat the delicious fruit, but the parrot could without getting poked even once with a big thorn.

The parrot was a very plain, grey little bird, but it had the loudest, clearest Call of all the birds of the forest. It came often to the Acacia Tree to eat her fruit.

One day, the Acacia Tree harkened to the little grey bird and said, “ If you would not eat my fruit, which is life to my generation, I will make you the most beautiful bird of the savannah.”

The parrot agreed right away. Instantly, the parrot was the envy of any flower that ever grew in the Africa. He looked himself all over and sounded his Call for all to come and look at his grand feathers. Everyone admitted that he was grand and beautiful.
The next day, the parrot was very hungry. He looked for berries and found none. It was hot and dry so seeds and nuts but few were hard to find.

After a few days of being hungry all day long, he went back to the Acacia tree that was now hanging luxuriously with fruit. He began to eat the fruit. “She won’t miss just a little of this fruit,” he reasoned. “She has so much!”

But the Acacia tree was angry at once. “You have deceived me! Your word has no meaning. From now on, your voice will have no meaning. You will have no Call of your own. If you wish to say good-night, you will have to use another’s Call. If you wish to call good-morning, you will have to use another birds Call to do it!”

That night when the Parrot tried to sing his good-night call, no sound would come from his beak. Not even a peep.

An so, to this day the poor Red-belly has no call of his own. He must use another’s voice.

Love,
Betty

Very cool - the stuff of myth.

Ann

You have imagination, Betty. The stuff of the young.

Very nice, Betty. Now, my little Sport has her own myth :-)

P.S. I love the story - just haven't had a chance to get back....

Thank you all for looking in. I am not pleased with the ending of the fable nor the ending of the story of Sport the Red Belly. I imagine that Wooffer has to come home before the story is done. Sport has more beauty on his inside than I have not put down into words. It has been a while since my spirit flowed out story wise.
Love,
Betty

Red bellied parrots have the IQ of a two year old child, including similar emotions. They are cuddly; yet they can be naughty. She expects a piece of banana every morning. The other day I ran out of bananas and gave her a piece of apple. She took it and threw it across her cage. It was not a banana. She loves apple; but she expected banana. When I leave her with my neighbor and return after more than a week, she turns her back on me when I approach the cage. She expects the lights off at 10 p.m. If I am not timely (if I have an extra light one), I will begin to hear the microwave - the sound she imitates that I do not like... I know I am trained; but when I turn off the extra light, she does a little trill and goes to sleep. She makes a few throat clearing sounds before she drops off. In the morning, after banana, she climbs to to top of the cage so I open the top door, take her in my hands and just hold her and scratch her head. When she's had enough, she pecks a little and I return her to the case. Sometimes, she is afraid of shadows and will make loud squaks (she learned those from a cockatoo) trying to scare the shadow. She dances when I do. She imitates classical music, especially the flute.

I forgot to add that when she is afraid or mad, she fluffs up her feathers to make herself appear larger and she'll snap her beak at the offending person.

3/12/2012



Betty..

That was a beautiful story.

Cheers..Joe

DK, I could visualize the actions of the parrot with your description. Well done.