Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes –

Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with glossy, colorful, marvelous feathers.

One day, a woman saw this bird and fell in Love with him. She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two travelled across the sky in perfect harmony.

She admired and venerated and celebrated that bird. But then she thought: He might want to visit far-off mountains!

And she was afraid, afraid that she would never feel the same way about any other bird.

And she thought: I’m going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never leave again. 

The bird, who was also in Love, returned the following day, fell into the trap and was put in a cage.

She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object of her passion, and she showed him to her friends, who said: Now you have everything you could possibly want.

However, a strange transformation began to take place: now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest.

The bird, unable to fly and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away.

His feathers began to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except by feeding him and cleaning out his cage.

One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking about him.

But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly amongst the clouds.

If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in motion, not his physical body.

Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and ‘Death’ came knocking at her door. Why have you come? she asked ‘Death’. So that you can fly once more with him across the sky, ‘Death’ replied.

If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and admired him ever more; alas, you now need me in order to find him again.

Free like a bird
Surfing the air
My feathers fluttering in the breeze
I’m free from my cage
I’m a free bird
See that tree there thus I can go there
See that flower there I can fly there

My chain is broken
I am a free man
No one owns me no more
I do what I please
I don’t please no man expect myself
I am free
I have freedom
And no one can stop me

See that bird over there flying to that tree
and flower
I can pick it up if I please
My time is golden
I will enjoy it day by day
I’m a free man