Little Bird (Little Bird Contest for SJ Tucker)

Have you ever wished you could fly? Not in a plane or a helicopter but actually honest to goodness fly?

When I was a child I began to dream about flying; not with arms but wings, beautiful wings that would change color when the light hits just right. I would fly in the midday sun, its rays warming me as I swept above the clouds into the higher reaches of the sky.

I remember in my waking hours the feeling of the wind caressing my feathers, no fear of falling or failing. When I flew there was nothing that could bring me down. Threats and pain were left down below amongst the green and the trees and the branches where I would perch and sing a simple melody when it pleased me. I would fly for hours, never tiring or wavering.

It could not have been easy, I figured, learning how to fly. Daring to jump out of the nest hoping the wind would catch and hold you before you would fall to earth. I wonder if birds have a sense of courage, if those little birds had to find within themselves the motivation to take the plunge, to jump, to accomplish something so many had done before but could not see themselves accomplishing.

Surely it must have been afraid of failing, of falling and perhaps dying if the circumstances led to that. Did the little birds know of the risks they were taking when they jumped out of their nests? Or maybe they feared the idea of not knowing; maybe they were just as afraid of what would happen if they were to fly as they were to fall. Or maybe the birds were not afraid at all.

Maybe they knew, just as their mother’s and father’s and all birds before them, that everything would be alright. That eventually all of them would learn to fly, that all of them would have to face the defeat of falling, maybe the birds know and are completely unafraid as they take their leap of faith. Maybe that is why they sing, to show us that there is nothing to fear, as they have known danger, and tasks that seem impossible. The little birds learn to sing to tell us that the winds can change and bring you somewhere you never knew, that you would fall out of your nest and not have the courage to get back up, but you would, just because you had to. Only to work harder than you did jumping out of the nest to get back up to it just so you could start all over again.

There is a difference between falling and failing. You only fail if you don’t climb back up to the nest, you only fail if you refuse to fly, and you only fail if you think you cannot sing. The little birds whether courageous, afraid or all-knowing jumps out of the nest anyway, just so they can taste what it means to fly, to see what it is to be free, to see what it is to be what they truly are.