Tales from Crete | 62

Today I want you to have a little Christmas adventure.

Once upon a time there was a goose, a pig and an angel who were all tired of being the way they were.
The goose thought it was cold and wet to walk in bare feet, and it was sad that it could only say cuckoo, cuckoo! It wished fervently that it could sing. The angel thought that all people were so ungrateful. They never noticed when it helped them or worked a miracle, and no one ever said thank you! The pig thought its food was so boring. It always got the same and the same. It would rather be a cook's wife or perhaps a chef and be allowed to cook delicious and healthy food.

All three of them met by chance at a small inn by the road. The angel had to help the croc, who was depressed about the coming of Christmas and the hustle and bustle. The pig was to be slaughtered in a few days, and the goose lived on the other side of the road, where its owner, an old lady, practically kept it as a pet. The goose was the oldest and the wisest, because every day it heard the old lady talking to herself.

Now all three of them sat in a small garden house in a corner of the inn garden. The goose had come walking across the road to look for rotten apples in the garden, the pig lived in the shed, because somewhere it had to be until it had to be slaughtered, and the angel had simply fled into the garden, away from the unreasonable croc who sighed and complained all day long. It was the angel's very first job on earth, and he was already tired of it and wanted to go home. I cannot, said the angel. I am not fit to be an angel! The earth is not at all what I intended.

"Sneak talk," said the goose. "Success requires you to do what it takes! Everything you can visualize, you can also realize! Nothing can stop you if you work for passion! Be what you are good at!"

"Yes, you talk just like St. Peter," said the angel, "but it is so difficult when you have to do it yourself! I can't!"
"Are any of you to be slaughtered?" The pig looked at them questioningly.
"Not me," said the angel.
"Nor me," said the goose. "My old lady is a vegetarian."
"So try to be realistic little Angel and plan a miracle for me!" said the pig.
"I'd rather not be eaten, I'd much rather cook. I have so many ideas for healthy food without the pig on the fork, but I never get to try!"
"You must visualize your goals," said the goose. "Things don't change, we change! Make room for quirks. Coincidences don't exist! Nothing is good or bad, it's our thoughts that make it so! Everything is inside yourself! Wisdom comes from within. Life belongs the one who gets up an hour before the others!"
"Now I will soon go mad," said the angel. "You just talk, talk and talk. It's totally like hearing..."
"Anger is a sign of health! Freedom is scary, there is nothing to fear but fear! Say yes to yourself!" continued the goose. "But you know what, I really want to learn to sing."
"Sing," said the angel, "it's not something you learn, it's something you can!"
The pig sighed.
"Someone once said to me: 'Never try to teach a pig to sing, you're wasting your time and you're annoying the pig.'
"I must go to the crocon," said the angel.
"I must go home to my old lady," said the goose.
"I'll stay here," said the pig, because it had to.

The next day the three friends met again.
"When I came down here, St. Peter told me to just pray. Then they would answer me from up there. He said, 'All prayers are answered, but prayers for understanding are the fastest answered.' Now I have prayed, because I don't understand that woman, but they don't answer up there. It's like they forgot me!" The angel's voice sounded desperate.
"They must be busy with the Christmas dinner," said the pig.
"All dreams can come true if you dare to pursue them," said the goose. "Find your own way. He who finds himself discovers that he lacks nothing!"
"You don't listen to what I say!" screamed the angel. "No one listens to me!"
"Good advice is a dangerous gift," said the goose. "No one can give you what you want without yourself!"
Now the angel was desperate. It had to try something different from what it had learned.
"She doesn't want to cook," it said, "that's why she's depressed. Now I'll let you out, little pig, and you can go into the kitchen and make lunch. I'll do a little miracle that will put the wife to sleep , and gosh, you must know some good recipes. Come on, let's go in and do something alternative!"
The pig wrapped an apron around his stomach and began to peel onions. The crocodile sat in a chair and slept. The angel wringed his hands, this was completely outside the rules, and the goose put the croc's glasses on its beak and read from the cookbook.
"Now you are cooking," said the pig, "but I would also like to learn to sing!"
"Then try it," said the pig, breaking out 6 eggs into a bowl. "What was it you said before? 'No one can give it to you but yourself!' Try now!"
The angel looked skeptical, but then it unleashed a small miracle without being allowed. It turned its gaze to the sky and said:
"Sorry, but it was necessary."
The goose opened its beak and began to sing. The loveliest omelette spun and bubbled on the stove. The croc reached out and sniffed.
"Food! Food that I didn't make myself. Wonderful. I must have a guardian angel. Thank you, dear little angel, thank you very much. How happy I am. At last someone does something for me." She stood up and patted the pig on the head. "You shall never be butchered. You shall work here in my kitchen. But who is it that sings lovely carols? Dearest goose, you must come and sing for the guests every Saturday afternoon throughout December, and now we shall all eat the lovely omelette with onions and tomatoes and no bacon at all, because it's fat, and now I want to go on a diet and try to get in a good mood again."
"The impossible just takes a little longer," said the goose, and then they ate the omelette.

The angel just smiled. It heard the music of the spheres again in its cochlea.

Story borrowed from Ragnhild Bach Ølgaard