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Essential Conferences for Summer, 2007 Articles: -Handwork and Intellectual Development -----ADHD: A Challenge of Our Time -The Cry for Myth -Freedom of Choice or Freedom From Choice? -Computers in Education -Helping Your Child's Teacher Communicate
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The Solitary Swan / 2 The young woman Mary dismounted from the donkey and walked up to Joseph. Slowly, she approached the swan, whose heart pounded in fear. She held her baby out, so that he might see the swan and touch its feathers. The infant gently ruffled the swan’s feathers and gurgled with delight. Tired and thirsty though she was, the young mother smiled, and kissed her child’s forehead.
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In spite of herself, the swan looked into the woman’s laughing eyes. They were two blue pools, more cooling and soothing than all of the water in the world. “Drink of this water,” her eyes seemed to say, “And you will never thirst again.” The swan then knew what she had to do. She fluttered her wings ever so gently, rose up, and revealed the little pool of water that, but moments ago, she had so fiercely guarded.
The young woman tried to bend down to gather the water in her cupped hands, but she was faint with thirst, and stumbled. The swan sucked the drops into her bill and stretched her short neck as best she could until it reached Mary’s hands. The swan released the water into the woman’s dry palms. The baby drank first, then his mother, and then the old man Joseph. Mary then returned to the donkey, who gratefully licked the remaining drops from her hands.
Mary remounted, and Joseph began to lead the donkey away as they set out once more on their long journey. Mary turned to the swan and said simply,
“You will always remember this day.”
The swan watched the family and their donkey until the dust they raised on the dry ground obscured their forms completely. Suddenly the sky grew dark. Moments later, a warm, gentle drizzle began to fall. The drizzle turned into rain, and then the sky began to pour. The swan lifted her bill gratefully to the heavens and drank and drank of the refreshing water that cascaded down upon her.
It rained for many days. The dry ground on which the swan had been resting became a puddle, which grew into a pool of water, and finally the pond returned, surrounded by lush green grasses and leaf-heavy trees. The rain stopped, and the sun came out, beaming with a gentler light.
The stormy wind had died down, and the swan could once again gaze upon her reflection in the pond. But she could not recognize what she saw there. The feathers that the little Child had ruffled had become as white as a cloud, and as smooth as the waters of the pond. And the neck that she had stretched out so far that Mary’s hand could receive the precious drops of water was now as long and graceful as a willow tree’s trunk.
And that is how the swan became the lithe and regal bird that we know today. But, so that every swan can recall how she appeared before she helped Mother Mary and her Son, young swans still look like “ugly ducklings.” Then, all at once, they shed their homely raiment and are blessed for that sacrifice rendered so long ago. They grow to be long and powerful, their necks extend gracefully, and their feathers become as white as the snow that falls on Christmas Day.
The End
This story is included in the audio CD Interfaith Stories for Hanukah and Christmas, a collection of 3 Hanukah tales and 3 Christmas tales told by the author. Click here for more information.
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