Folktale: Moving on with Life

Have you heard the story of the depressed mother lark and the chicken? It is a folktale that is aimed at teaching us to always pick up the pieces of our lives and move on. Everyone experience hardships and testing times but what matters most is the ability to not move on and not let yourself be swallowed by your trials and temptations.

The folktale of the depressed Lark tells the story of a mother lark who had two babies. Her babies were her world. The tree she lived on was not the safest for her babies. This was because the fox and other animals that fed on little creatures always roamed about the tree.

To make sure that her babies were safe, the mother lack would always tell them whenever she was going out to never let anyone into the house unless she was the one.

One day when the mother Lark had gone out to find food for her babies, a cunning fox showed up and knocked on the door.

The baby larks refused to open the door. The fox then told them that the mother Lark had sent him and that she had to run an urgent errand out of town. The baby larks were convinced and so opened the door for the sly fox who ate them.

When the mother Lark came home, it was already too late. Her babies had been eaten by the sly fox. She was depressed and so locked herself in her nest and refused to come out. Other animals came to console her but she shut them out. She would tell her comforters, "go away. Life had been more bitter to me than it has been to you. So please leave me to my sorrows". Her comforters began to share stories of the bitterness life has shown them but she chased them away. She also refused to eat anything.

When the mother hen heard about mother Lark's misfortune, she decided to go and comfort her but was chased away by the Lark. Mother hen then decided to tell her own story to the Lark.

"Mother Lark" she called, "did you know that I lost five children?"

"And you are still here?" asked mother Lark. "How did you loose them?"

The mother hen began to tell her story, "I hatched five chicks. A hawk took one and it remained four. I wailed and shouted but he never brought the chick back. A herbalist stole another and it remained three. I wailed and shouted but he never brought the chick back. My owner took another chick. I wailed and shouted but he never brought the chick back. The two remaining chicks were also taken by the sly fox. All these experiences weighed me down but I had to keep moving. Life must go on my dear Lark".

After heard the story of how mother hen lost her chicks, mother Lark discovered that life has also been hard on others. They just kept moving on. Thus she wiped her tears and decided to move on with her life.

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All images are from Google

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