A Little Bird
This is the story about Gazelle who cannot sleep and talks about it
with Zebra at the waterhole, told in the tradition of African storytelling.
Gazelle wonders if she is sleepless because she’s living in constant
fear of Crocodile. Zebra knows the feeling, but has his own problems,
those of night- mares and flashbacks from being chased by Lion.
Both Gazelle and Zebra are very tired. Although neither Lion nor
Crocodile have been seen in this valley for months, they are living in
constant anticipation, jumping at small noises and yelling at their
offspring for little reason.
In this valley there is a small bird that picks the teeth of Crocodile
when he sleeps with his mouth open in the sun. “Imagine...”, said
Gazelle to Zebra, “Imagine if a bird like that could come and pick our
worries out of our heads and bodies as we speak...”
The little bird heard them and landed on the head of Zebra. “How can
I be of help?” it asked.
“We are both so very tired and we don’t know why, because there is
no dan- ger at this moment like there was a while back”, answered
Zebra.
The little bird flew high up in the air, so high that it could see the calm
of the water, the green of the grass, and the energy of life in Zebra...
and this energy was like small rivers of pure life flowing from the
hooves to the head to the heart and around... but so me of these
rivers did not seem to flow properly, as if they were dried up or
blocked.
That night, as Zebra looked into the stars, the little bird started