I was driving on a lonely country road when I noticed something that made me slow down. On one side of the road, there was a beautiful chicken farm. The fields were fresh and green, dotted with small yellow and white flowers, and inside the fence were hundreds of chickens. They looked healthy, strong, and well-fed, moving around like a cheerful crowd at a small village fair.
I parked my car by the side and stood there for a while, just watching them. Most of them were busy scratching the ground, chasing each other, and pecking at the grass. It was like they had their own little world, full of small joys.
But then my eyes caught something different. Away from the noisy group, one chicken stood alone. It wasn’t running. It wasn’t playing. It just stood there quietly, looking into the distance, as if its mind was somewhere far away.
Its body was healthy, but its eyes carried a strange heaviness. It almost looked like it was thinking about something important. I couldn’t stop wondering — maybe it knew something the others didn’t. Maybe it sensed that soon, its turn would come to leave this peaceful green field. Perhaps tomorrow, it might be taken to a butcher shop, never to return here again.
I felt a strange sadness. In life, we often see this — in a crowd full of laughter, there is always someone who stays quiet, lost in their own thoughts. Sometimes they smile on the outside but carry something heavy inside. Just like this chicken, they stand apart, watching the world, knowing something that others don’t.
As I got back into my car, the image of that lone chicken stayed with me. It reminded me how precious every free moment is, and how important it is to notice the silent ones among us — because they often have the deepest stories
