The mother asks, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and the child responds, simply, "A bird." The mother laughs and walks away, imagining future days of her son piloting only the best planes in the future.
Fifteen years later, they walk together along the edge of a beach, watching the waters crash and recede. Again, she asks her son, "So what are you going to do now that you're all grown up?" He turns and looks at her, "I've already told you mother, I'm going to be a bird." As if on que, a wave of shorebirds leapt up and flew out over the waters, and without another word her son turned and joined them, flying out over the ocean towards the horizon. Shocked, she cried out and called after him. She called and cried, but he would not return. She stayed there on that beach waiting for him to come back for 3 days, before hunger and thirst drove her home. When she arrived, she collapsed into a heap upon the floor, realization slowly settling in. It wasn't what she had imagined or wanted for him, but it was his dream, not hers, and that was all that mattered.
Several weeks later, a co-worker begins to laugh and tell stories about her daughter in the office, telling everyone how her daughter plans on becoming a mountain lion when she grew up. "Isn't that just cute" she kept saying. The mother stood up from her desk, approached her co-worker, and drew her aside. "It may be cute to you right now, but to your daughter, it is real, and it will always be real. And one day she will leave you for the company of the mountains and you will have to be able to understand that that is what she wants and let her go. And you must find a way to be happy about it afterwards, for her, for you, and for the world; trusting that she is going to be the best, and most beautiful mountain lion in the world." The mother turned and walked away, tears wetting her cheeks, leaving her co-worker utterly confused.
A week later, the mother quit her job, sold all her belongings, and walked away from her house out into the world, carrying nothing but a backpack and a pair of binoculars. There was only one thing she wanted to do now: watch her son live his best life doing what he loved, and she was missing everything from where she was.
