I believe Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams because he never stopped believing on them. A childhood dream is born from the heart with the sincerity and innocence of our true soul and identity. Life is harsh and full of unpredictables and if we are not careful the connection with our childhood dreams gets broken or displaced with every passing day setting us a part from our true desires of our heart and heavenly nature. I am one of those strange people who hasn’t burry her inner child; I talk to my inner child in a daily basis, I let it play and be silly and let her be the natural jokester she is. I let my inner child express her fears and urge her in overcoming her insecurities. Some might call her as part of my split personality, I call her my” inner child”. I believe in dreams and they do come true; I had more than a hand full of experiences to share but I only have 300 words or so to use for my business class assignment
When I was 7 years old, my mom would take me to visit my deceased dad’s mom ( My Gramma #1) as I called her, Grandma #1 had in her big Spanish court-yard a very large rounded cage with a scarlet macaw inside. During my visit she will mark a safety parameter around the cage where I could safely enjoy this magnificent parrot and heard him sign and talk silly words. I wanted to hold him so anxiously but I was never allowed, I was comforted by sitting at the edge of the chalk rim my grandma #1 drew for me and spend long hours just admiring this magnificent bird. I want it one; as a child that young wanted to have a parrot as beautiful as that one was. Life when on, soon teen and then a young adult I left home to another city … out of state. I found a job and a mentor that will train me in administration and accounting back then where the excel sheets where done by hand. This corporation had three divisions, float fishing, hotel and restaurant. I was advance to human resources and I was in charge of payroll and taxes of the employees. From time to time I will go down the restaurant area and visit; they had exotic birds; yes; beautiful scarlet macaws and blue and gold and an assortment of amazon parrots. My inner child loved to visit any time we had after our office hours. The owner noticed my affinity to the parrots and brought one of his macaws to keep me company at my office for the following two years, that beautiful parrot was my assistant beside my desk. I left my job and city behind when I got married and moved to USA as my husband is from California; we rented an apartment and for our weekend we will go to the movies but we would stop by the pet store before entering the movies as it was really closed in the same shopping center. They had the most beautiful blue and gold macaw for sale. The price was exorbitant and we were just happy the owner let us mingle there until one day she was gone. The bird had a new home and I was happy for the parrot but heart-broken.
Life in the USA went as fast as we know it can get, getting busy and learning new things. My inner child kept those parrot memories to herself and didn’t mentioned them for a decade. I had the opportunity to work in an Animal Hospital as a front and back assistant. Years into my new career a woman brought a two days old chick who had been injured and wanted to put it to sleep. One of the older chicks had mutilated his toe and he had some skin injuries. Eyes closed this ugly featherless chick demanded food. We prepared a warm parrot formula and fed him while the doctor talked to the owner. The owner agreed to release the chick to the hospital and we would do our best for the chick to survive.
After the owner left the doctor called me to his office and asked me if I wanted to take the bird home. He/she needed to be fed every 2 hours and kept warm with latex gloves filled with warm water as the little chick was too tiny for a heating pad and uneven temperatures could kill her. He told me I could use the facility equipment to keep her int he incubator while I work without any charge. He also mentioned the very low rate for survival he / she had.
Without hesitation I accepted to adopt “ little ugly chicken” that became my precious harlequin macaw.
When my macaw got older and stronger, we ran a DNA test and turned out being a female now 27 years old, she sings, is silly and a brat at times. Loves to get inside the pantry and create a big mess there is she is not caught soon enough.
I today a total of four rescued parrots now an umbrella cockatoo, African gray, harlequin macaw and a sun conure and they will probably outlive me, I play with them every day by singing and dancing every day. They bring such joy to my spirit and I am grateful for the opportunity given to finally hold my own large colorful parrot on my arm thanks to the living dream my inner child kept in her heart while I was busy going thru life becoming an adult.
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