Taking Flight
Trust can be a high ring to reach for at different passages in our life.
There are times we step, jump, fly out of our comfort zone with no regard for risk or injury. When loss is a possibility or we feel uncertain, we hesitate, fraught with overthinking…stuck in old stories misinterpreted as “failures.”
When we choose to change in any magnitude, there’s a preparation, similar to when you plan and gather your things to fly on a plane to a destination. Your mind starts imagining all the things you are going to enjoy when you are there and it sets your heart open for the journey. The funny thing is, I never think of the plane’s weight and the velocity it takes to get me there. I just get on the plane, bless the plane for a safe trip and sink into a trance and the hours pass quickly. I have flown to Europe and Africa several times and only once did I feel into how dangerous it could be if something goes wrong as we are racing at 575 miles per hour, thousands of feet up in the air. I venture that most of us just trust, get on the plane and put that out of our minds. That is some radical yet thoughtless trust. What would it be like to do that in every journey of change: plan your timing, gather your stuff and just go trusting your metaphorical metal wings will magically float on air. That sounds amazing and incredible! We would be dauntless. Yet we are human and tend toward fearful patterns when faced with the uncertainty of our arrival and departure times. Death is inevitable, yes? Uncertainty about the “when-ness” of that can make us feel vulnerable. Uncertainty about the journey forward as we age can bring on fear of suffering. And what about that feeling of vulnerability?
We are afraid of being vulnerable. Overriding fear of judgement, gender overlays and overthinking have programmed us to believe that vulnerability is a weakness. When actually vulnerability is a marker. A signpost showing us where we may be attached to an outcome. Owning our vulnerability can allow us to see things differently. Vulnerability is a strength when we embrace it as one. It can be helpful guidance showing us how to modify our path how we can be accessible to others, how we can reach into and feel into softer parts of our belly and emotions. A flow of information.
I heard the poet, David Whyte, recite from his works that “vulnerability is the underlying, ever present and abiding undercurrent of our natural state.” He goes on to say that “the only choice we have as we mature is us to choose to inhabit our vulnerability: how we become larger, more compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance.”
I see how we can become numb to feeling into our capacity for change and our edges become rigid. Then a spark wakes us up…it could be a desire that awakens us in ways we haven’t felt or gives us permission to feel into places that were deadened from disappointment. It could be a death of one life lived or a physical death of a loved one, relationship or some part of our life has just has come to completion. We get called to move out of our ruts and grooves of apathy and comfort. Fear…butterflies…anxiety…joy…many different states of being cast light on what is important to us. Perhaps even give us permission for a new vision of what’s possible; what has not been considered before…to reach way beyond we ever thought possible.
Now we get to make a choice. I invite you to see we get to choose how we experience this. How we desire to move forward. Each time a gift. A passing. 5 seconds to know our answer: The sacred Yes? The definitive No? The wavering Not Yet?
What helps us tap into our guidance and alignment with our path and purpose?
For one, the people and environment we surround ourselves with…and that is a choice too. Our community can mirror the thoughts we hold inside. Our community can uplift us beyond the precipice of fear or complacency. Our positive community is there to remind us of that if we lose our way or forget our intention. The community you choose can steer you to course correct back into alignment with what holds heart and meaning to you.
Secondly, our trust in our connection to our alignment with the Divine, Universe, God, Allah, Krishna, whatever you want to call IT. Trusting our spiritual knowing is the tap on the shoulder commanding us to pay attention to what resonates with our intrinsic truth.
Thirdly, choosing our thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs are the game changers in our journey of living our purpose. We get to define what mindset we want to take on THIS particular path. How we want to play on this journey. Even the hard stuff, the stuff we didn’t ask for or don’t want. This is the stuff that often urges us to take flight and go beyond our usual resistance to change. How we embrace the challenge and move through it with the thoughts we choose impacts our experience of the challenge and triumph.
In conclusion, taking flight toward change is an inside job. One that calls forth our awareness and our ability to choose how we want to experience flight. I invite you to journal your answers to the following 3 questions of taking your next flight of change or transformation:
1) How do you desire to experience this?
2) What gifts, blessings and talents do you bring to the journey that you are grateful for?
3) What thoughts, attitudes and beliefs do you want to cultivate to make this the most enjoyable experience for you?
