first flight

When the time comes for the fledgling wrens to leave the nest, there is no going back. The mother and father take up safe perches nearby, then turn their faces to the sky and sing their loudest, brightest, most joyful songs. The young wrens eagerly stretch and shake their fresh new feathers and then leap away once and forever from the nest's confinement into the wide-open sky.

First flight is sacred, always, as it is the moment another new soul joins the dance with every other soul in the web of life and light that weaves together the days fate and destiny grant it. First flight is one of life's most dangerous moments, too. The singing and flurry of new wings attracts notice. Many lives begin and end in that first free movement out into the world.

Our knowledge and acknowledgment of the sanctity of every moment is what we are here for, to bear witness to the wonders of this great blue ball of gas and rock floating around a tiny star in a vast, vast universe. We are here to celebrate all the miracles that had to happen to create life from stardust. We are here to fill our days with the best of who we are, to fill our passage through the world with our love, our kindness, our own light.

Every life, every moment joins a new one and we need to remember to step into each as boldly and innocently as the young bird taking its first leap into the sky, into the song, into the wind.