Feathers & Flight

I was walking the beach yesterday and the shore seemed to be littered with a number of feathers. Clearly they were not from one bird as they varied in size and color and structure, The previous night had been a stormy windy night so perhaps birds shed feathers in bad wind. I have always been fascinated with flight. The feather, which is so light and fragile, would seem to lack enough strength to accomplish flight. I have watched eagles and peregrine falcons carrying prey that looks heavier than the bird. I sit and watch the birds at my window and see the variety of sizes and shapes. It is that ability to fly that really fascinates me. Moving air holding them up, something even lighter than they are is holding them up. So many mysterious realities in nature. So many things that seem impossible to the initial impression.

It seems to be the same in the spiritual realm. I have soared on the wings of the dove. I wish it was the unaided flight like I dream of so frequently. I can picture myself just soaring on the breeze high in the air but I know when I wake that it is not real and not possible. I do know it is real when I am carried by the wind of the spirit and things happen that I can neither accomplish nor explain. I love the beginning and the end of Forrest Gump. The small white feather drifting and moving in the wind with that effective tune playing. The feather moving first one way then another not knowing what will happen next, is the way I feel sometimes when the Spirit is leading me. Life seems effortless and unpredictable at the same time, while it feels so beautiful also. In those moments, as heavy as I am, I feel like a feather, and as logical and intelligent as is my nature, I find great joy in those experiences of the mysterious. Come Holy Spirit, no feathers but flight awaits me anyway.