In a green and pleasant garden lived a peacock who knew he was beautiful, and never let anyone forget it. He spread his great tail of blue and gold and strutted along the paths. "Look at me," he would say to every bird he passed. "Has there ever been anyone so splendid?" The other birds nodded politely, for it was true — he was very splendid indeed.
In the same garden lived a small brown wren, plain as a pebble, with no bright colors at all. The peacock barely noticed her. "What a dull little thing," he sniffed, and turned his shining back.
But the plain wren had a gift. Each morning, just as the sun rose, she sang — and her song was so pure and sweet that the whole garden hushed to listen. Flowers seemed to open a little wider. Even the grumpiest old toad sighed with pleasure. The wren did not sing to be admired; she sang because her heart was full, and she wanted to share it.
The peacock heard the song and felt a strange prickle of jealousy. "Singing," he scoffed. "Anyone can sing. Beauty is what matters."
So the next dawn, the peacock decided he would sing too, and show them all that he could outshine the wren at this as well. He lifted his head, opened his beak — and out came a sound so loud and harsh and screeching that the whole garden woke in fright. Birds scattered. A rabbit dove into its hole. The peacock's beautiful feathers could not help him at all.
He fell silent, embarrassed, his fine tail drooping for the very first time.
The little wren hopped over to him. She could have laughed. Instead she said gently, "Your feathers are the most beautiful in all the garden. That is your gift. My gift is my song. The world needs both — the looking and the listening." The peacock blinked. No one had ever shared a kind word with him; they had only ever admired him from afar.
"Will you teach me to listen?" he asked, quietly. And the wren smiled and said she would.
From that day on, the peacock spread his glorious tail each morning while the wren sang beside him, and the two became the pride of the garden — one for the eyes, one for the ears, and both, at last, for friendship. The peacock learned that being beautiful is a fine thing, but being kind is finer.
"Beauty fills the eye for a moment," the wren liked to say. "But kindness fills the heart for good."
And the garden had never been a happier place to wake up in.