Releasing the Eagle Within
There is a story in the tradition about an eagle that thought it was a chicken. As a baby it was found by a farmer next to its deceased parents, and out of compassion was brought back to the farmer’s home and placed with the only birds he had. While it lived a life of contentment, the eagle was not who it was meant to be. People throughout the village would travel to the farm and witness the “chicken-acting eagle,” but the local naturalist was concerned enough to go and help the eagle manifest its true nature. The first two days, the naturalist took the eagle in its arm and delivered words of encouragement, with no success as the eagle would look at its fellow chickens and revert to its learned behavior. On the third day the naturalist took the eagle to the top of a mountain, out of view of the farm. After more encouragement, and the sight of a flying bird that looked just like it, the eagle jumped, flapped its wings, screeched, and flew away.
In this moment of spirited uprising against systems of oppression such as racism, there are many “chickens” who are realizing that they are “eagles.” Additionally, there are many people who are seeing others as their true selves for the first time. As is no surprise, there is a lot of necessary healing to undo the pain caused by not acknowledging, and by not being acknowledged. Where do you start such an intense process? I encourage people to realize that one of the easiest, most natural and genuine ways to begin healing is through stories. When you tell your story, and when you listen to someone’s story, the common threads of humanity are activated in a powerful way.
DiscoverME/RecoverME began as a course project while I was earning my Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In retrospect my instructor, Debbie Agus, was the “naturalist” for my career. Whether or not she truly knew or just had a hunch, she encouraged me to contribute to public health what I possessed the whole time: my skills as a storyteller. It was in an unassuming rowhouse in West Baltimore that my mother and I first had the opportunity to utilize the African oral tradition to help eagles fly. They were people in healing from mental health challenges, drug and alcohol abuse, people who in my field would only be quantified by their age, sex, race, and behavior. Through our stories and theirs, we collectively witnessed wisdom, humor, empathy, compassion, determination and most importantly, love. It was not what they did that resonated with me, but who they were…and it changed my life forever.
The beauty of storytelling is its simplicity. We are all storytellers, every one of us, and it is as natural as breathing. But we must be intentional and vulnerable. Please share your unapologetic truths and acknowledge a person’s intrinsic values when exuded. Within our stories, there is power and freedom.
LifeSpring Counseling Services is grateful to Dr. David Olawuyi Fakunle, Ph.D. for sharing his storytelling talents with us in such a powerful way. We are so excited to see people around the nation “release the eagle within.”
Visit DiscoverME/RecoverME’s website here to learn more about the organization’s work and the use of storytelling to find their voice.
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Written by: Dr. David Olawuyi Fakunle, Ph.D.
Dr. David Olawuyi Fakunle, Ph.D. is a self-described “mercenary for change,” willing to employ any talent and occupy any space in the effort to elevate anyone who feels divested from their truest self, particularly People of Color. As an artist, David has utilized vocal and theater performance, African storytelling and African drumming in the proclamation of truth for over 20 years. David is the co-founder and CEO of DiscoverME/RecoverME, an organization that utilizes the African oral tradition to encourages the claiming of one’s narrative for personal and organizational growth.
Photos: Aditya Saxena on Unsplash
Date of Download: 7/14/2020
