Talk about majestic flight, the Kaloli Bird seemed to have taken flying lessons from an experimental aircraft and sort of sputtered off making a lot of noise with its wings and one always expected that there would be some kind of crash ending with a dud.

The most fascinating event of the year involving this strange bird was the annual grasshopper season of the year in Uganda. The Kaloli Birds could be seen flying around the Street Lights of Kampala with their mouths wide open swooping down on the hundreds, thousands of grasshoppers who seemed to have gathered for the annual conventions around the lights. It certainly was a spectacle to behold and often I would stop my car and get out to watch the hunt.

I often would go and have lunch on the outside terrace of the newly opened Grand Imperial Hotel just up from the Post Office in downtown Kampala. I loved the contrasts of the surrounding and the food was wonderful and reasonably priced.

So many of us feel like the Kaloli Bird, feel like the ugly duckling as we look at the mirror in the morning and simply groan, 'oh God." The idea of self-acceptance is far from us, we look for improvements to tuck this or that is, to cover this blemish or that one. All of us feel like an ugly bird at one time or another. We all wish we were and at times we get rid of the mirror in the morning and no longer take a look at ourselves.

I was taking a few days holiday and on a lake in Africa. As I took a walk during the late afternoon I observed a Kaloli Bird sitting on a mountain of rocks. I stopped to take a picture and to observe this creature. It simply sat there looking out on this equatorial lake. I walked closer and began to climb up on the rocks to get a better picture of it, only to see it fly off with a noise sounding like a helicopter.

As I saw it moving off over the Lake I thought of how so many of us want to fly away from who we are. How hard it is to come to that place where we can simply accept ourselves for who we are, as we are.

Beauty after all does not start on the outside; it is inside of us all. The shell we hold so important is simply something that is fading away, or maybe increasing. I remember some years back going on walk in Africa. It was a hot and muggy day and I simply wanted to rinse my face with cold water, which I did when I got home. I looked into the mirror as I raised my head and to my horror discovered that I could see my scalp. Thoughts of baldness raced through my head. Maybe I should send away for some of that growth serum and regain what I seemed to be losing. Maybe I could go back to the states and get a hair transplant, implant, or whatever else.

It is a few years later and I still have hair left on my head (salt and pepper now and no Clairol) without any wonder drug and even if I did not, I still am Jon. I have as I have grown older come to accept myself for who I am. I actually like myself more than when I was young and would look into the mirror to find some imperfection like one of those nasty red things on my face.

Self-acceptance is a gift we all so dearly need to give ourselves. I do not know whether the Kalolo Bird even knows how we perceive him, and I am sure such creatures are not reading any articles such as this, and maybe, just maybe that is the best. I am sure most of them think that they are simply a wonderful bird.

Would it not be nice to be free from the trappings of our culture of what is beautiful and to accept the gift of who we are, a people in the words of the ancient King "fearfully and wonderfully made."

I sometimes sing a song I like to share with you, "I like myself and I don't give a rip if any one else gives a ..." Beauty begins within; beauty if it is allow to grow will reach the outside in due time. Our faces will reflect the inner beauty and acceptance that no Revlon, no Clinique or any other product can give to us and it is less expensive since it is a gift to ourselves.