‘ A bird sitting in a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not in the branch, but in her own wings.’
Today’s quote was inspired by a lovely woman I will call ‘Amber’ that I met a few weeks ago. She is in her early 20’s with a bright future awaiting her, but right now she is struggling to cope with the premature loss of a parent. Her father died three years ago and she feels that those around her are beginning to move on and forget about him. This perception was recently strengthened when she paid a visit to her step mother and found that she had cleaned out the garage and boxed up all of the tools that had been her father’s passion. Although three years had passed since his death, Amber felt deeply wounded by this action and she was angry and inconsolable.
I spent the bulk of my time with Amber helping her to differentiate between the branches that this world will splay in front of her to perch on, and the wings within her that will keep her aloft even when there is no branch. Garages full of tools are branches- they are props that catch our eye and tempt us to believe that they are the reason we do not fall. That which will sustain us is never in the branches, but instead in the wings that we all possess. We worked on strengthening the continuing bond that Amber has with her father; the emotional, spiritual and symbolic relationship that she has learned to cultivate since his physical death. This continuing bond represents wings- an untouchable aspect of her father that is based on love and connection that this world can never disintegrate. We talked about how garages and tools are things; created to be sturdy, but ultimately fallible and destined to fade away with time. Wings are eternal…
Investing our trust into the right things is imperative to growth. The branches of this world are always going to give way…. and our wings are always going to provide loft. It’s ok to place our feet on the branches…. but if we want to fly, we must place our trust on the wings.