When It's Time To Spread Your Wings

One of the things I like most about June is the chance to see all the new life that was born in April and May take their first, tentative steps into the world and discover the wonder of it all. For example, my squirrel family next door have already seen their little ones go from timidly exploring their immediate surroundings before darting back into their nest, to now being big enough, and strong enough, and brave enough, to not only go out on their own, but make flying leaps from the rooftop to the big pine tree next door. Who needs to go all the way down and crawl back up when you can just take a leap of faith and for for it. I've never even seen their mom do that, but these little ones have the heart and the courage of lions.

Perhaps the family that has moved me the most is a family of crows that live nearby. At first I would see mom flying across the open sky with the little ones flapping their wings hurriedly trying to keep up (and keep airborne, I would imagine). She took them out every day, and every day they got a little braver, a little stronger, and flew a little higher. A few weeks ago I saw them finally able to keep up with mom and practice their loop-di-loops up and down. The other day, however, I couldn't help giggling when I saw mom flying across the sky as usual, except this time the kids were doing their own aerial acrobatics like stunt pilots, not even paying attention to where they were supposed to be. It was obvious that they no longer needed mom to show them how to fly. They figured it out on their own: it was time to spread their wings and fly.

So often we start out taking baby steps to help ourselves go out into the world and do what our heart tells us we need to do, but our steps never progress beyond the baby stage. We find a million reasons not to take bigger steps, or more steps, or climb uphill so we can finally reach the top. There comes a time for all of us when we need to spread our wings and fly, to step off our perch of safety and take a leap of faith. Sure, we may stumble, and maybe even fall a time or two, but so does everyone else. Just like those baby crows, we may have to flap like crazy at first but, if we keep at it, before you know it, we'll be soaring. So let go and fly, my friend!

And so it is.