We were in the car, listening to the song “blackbirrd” sung by Beyoncé, Tanner Adell, Brittany Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts. This song in all its versions, has a deep family history I won’t divulge, but let’s just say it’s a favorite.
My son, and I were heading home after a long evening. Imagine, at 9PM, a three year old still in an ISOFIX fivepoint car seat, singing Blackbiird at the top of his lungs. Proclaiming he’s taking flight. Then he says, “Mama, if I was a bird I would fly high high high, and go far far far!!” It was at that moment, I began to think, what if I was a bird? What if we lived life as though we were all birds? Flying into the light, arising without fear, and taking flight on our own.
As I wrote in January, my life is in the midst of change. Despite the chaos of this world, I feel deep down that I’m being called to take flight. I think I’m being called to new places, to risky choices, and to fly directly into a thick fog. The kind of fog where the light is distorted and scattered. The vision is unclear, but there is another side. I don’t think life is greener on the other side, but the trees may be different, the bodies of water have new names, and the gravitational pull of the moon may feel a bit stronger. And the brave flight to get to the otherside of the fog will have been worth it.
If I was a bird, what would the world look like? I can imagine humans looking small from the sky. The houses look small, the trees being a protective barrier and a nice landing place. The world from the sky looks so vast, wide,and expansive. What if when we thought of the world, we thought about it from a birds eye view. Big and yet we are but a spec in the beauty of it all. The view is so expansive that it inspires us to dream beyond view, to consider the impossible as possible. Maybe if we were birds, and we could fly, and go “high high high”, making the choice at the fork in the road wouldn’t feel so hard. Because from the birds eye view, no matter the path, the view is still beautiful, and fulfilling.
Did you know birds are technically dinosaurs? They are feathered theropod dinosaurs and they are also close to reptiles; their closest relative is the crocodile. The diversity among the bird category is vast, and yet they all have similar traits. They are social, mob-like creatures, who travel together. And one thing that stands out to me the most, is they are generational in their knowledge and patterns. Birds pass down knowledge generation to generation, and even when environments change, they will still return. Such as the birds, whom every spring create a nest on the wreath on my front door, because our house took the place of their tree. If we were birds, this means there would always be something to remember, something to pass down to the next generation, and something to be said for the community we build. We wouldn’t just take flight, but we would lift one another up so we could all take flight together. We would work hard to create nests, and maintain our ancestral duties, even when the life we have today looks much much different. We would not ever fly into the fog alone, but together, with the knowledge that the path we are on was once taken by the generations before us. They too, survived the flight, established their nests, and joined the community. Therefore, no matter the flight, we too will survive.
Who knew my three year old son’s exclamation of “if I was a bird” would lead me to a whole new look at how to move through life. The song Blackbird states, “Take these sunken eyes and learn to see, all your life you were only waiting for this moment to be free”. Last time I blogged about what it means to truly see somebody. Today’s blog is about what it means to see what it is to be free, brave, and live without fear. Not to fear falling, because you my beloved reader are a bird, and you have waited too long to take flight.
So go, “high high high” and see “far far far”. The view from above, the community of love, and the generational knowledge, will carry you, and be the air beneath your wings on the way to making your impossible possible.
Humility in Unknown Possibility | Blog 
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