Learning to Fly

A smile, a word, or a look can influence a person. The smallest gesture can alter a person’s life forever. My story did not quite happen this way. I was not changed by an action or a person. My life was changed by a little bird, the little bird that taught me to fly.

            I was running through my life doing the same things with the same people every day. I had a routine, a routine I would seldom break. I would get on my knees and pray every single day. I prayed for the same thing in the same way. I said the words, but they had no emotion behind them. My life was a life without freedom. On one unsuspecting, sunny Sunday afternoon, my routine was forever altered.

            My life was so busy that I hardly had the time to stop and think, to ponder, or to just daydream. I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for my mother to come pick me up when I saw a snow white owl sitting on a tree branch. My first thought was how beautiful and serene it was, and then I began to wonder what an owl was doing in Southern California. I began going over the scenarios in my head for why an owl would be this far down south, when I began to realize that this bird didn’t need a routine. This bird was free. The bird went wherever the wind took it. The bird never knew where it was going, but it had known where it had been.

            I looked back on my life and began to realize just how meaningless it had been. The same routine day after day was no way to live. I looked at the bird and found myself asking, “You could fly anywhere you want to, why are you staying here?” Only then, I found myself asking me the same question. Why should I be confined to a single routine? It was amazing to see how this little bird could be such an example to me. I suddenly didn’t want to say those meaningless words over and over again. I wanted those words to mean something. I kicked my routine and started actually living my life. When I prayed to God, it wasn’t a routine or a mantra anymore; it was a relationship with God.

             A little insignificant owl helped inspire me to spread my wings and fly. The owl taught me how to live and kick my routine. The owl inspired me to go out and live I own life. People can be inspired by the simplest things. It doesn’t have to be something huge. It could be something small that you never knew could teach you more about life than most people can. This little bird helped my soul, my life, and someday my dreams take flight. 

     You alone can make 
dreams take flight.
Andrew Lloyd Webber

 

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