Endless Freedom, flying above the Clouds.

That has been my dream ever since I saw a eagle flying as a child. I can still vividly remember, I was on a short trip with my parents to a castle and there I saw him flying majestically above our heads.

The castle had been located on a hill and I had been tired from walking all the way up. Upon arriving I saw him flying, so easily, such freedom.

Ever since then I knew: I want to be as free as he was.

But as my life went by my dream remained a dream.

I tried, I really tried.

But I couldn't.

Because I had a lame leg.

And someone with a lame leg can't become a pilot, can't fly.

And gradually the young boy turned into a teen, a young university student and finally into a grown man. But he still never managed to experience the freedom he sought.

He already learned to accept that he couldn't fly on his own. But he couldn't forget. So he decided to become an aerospace engineer, trying to stay close to his dream. After all they had close ties to, for example the glider community. However it turned out to be a painful experience to watch his fellow students learn maneuvering a glider while he was only able to watch and let his fantasy run wild.

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He tried operating model airplanes, however that experience wasn't better.

In the end he found no way to experience his absolute freedom.

But he tried to satisfy his yearning by accompanying others fly, his friends would regularly take him flying with them, together in a two seat glider.

However, it wasn't what he dreamed of.

In his dreams he was an eagle flying majestically into the setting sun, above the clouds, accompanied by endless and eternal freedom.

When his youth was finally lost and the young boy turned into an old man, he would regularly sit on a bench in front of his house, watching birds flying, counting planes. However, this old man had dementia, the thing he had forgotten were more numerous than the things he could still remember. As such he forgot the dream he couldn't forget in his youth.

Just sometimes, sitting on the bench, he had the feeling of having forgotten something very important.

Then one day his grandchildren took him on a trip, they climbed a hill, although not steep, a laborious task to the old man with a lame leg.

When they finally arrived at the top there was a castle and they saw an eagle flying majestically above their heads, easily covering the distance that was so strenuous to him.

The old man witnessed the eagle's endless freedom, flying above the clouds.

And the old man remembered the dream he had forgotten.

That evening after closing his eyes he heard a voice: "In this life, what is your greatest regret?"

Hearing this voice he unconsciously thought 'Having never experienced absolute freedom of an eagle, endless freedom, flying above the clouds. To experience it just once, there is nothing I wouldn't give up'.

Afterwards there was only silence.

"Then let me fulfill this last wish of yours."

Hearing this answer the old man sensed himself falling asleep.

When he opened his eyes again he saw an seemingly endless prairie and he was an eagle, sensing the wind in his wings.

Then he took off, flying into the setting sun, never to return.

That evening the old man passed away.

"If there is a next life, I wish to be an eagle, flying above the clouds into endless freedom"