Flight of the Penguins
Our penguin friend looks to the sky and ponders… who says we can’t fly? Climb aboard and ride along on our three-part journey. It starts with Hope, turns into Dreams, and lifts off to Flight.
Part I: Hope When something keeps calling to you, when you can hear it and see it in your mind’s eye but you can’t find the way, remember. Just look up.
Part II: Dreams Dreams begin with the vision of what can be. They start with wondering what if and why not and how about me?
Part III: Flight Lifting off into freedom, from bounds now broken, the dream has awakened. Just ride the flow. Who knows where the current will go and where it will take you.
Part I: Hope
You can’t fly…
This is the message he’s heard his entire life.
Instead, they told him to do what you’re supposed to.
Do what we’ve always done for generations.
Do what’s expected.
Do what’s real.
Don’t get all fancy with dreams and desires.
Stay on the earth where you’re supposed to be.
When they’re not watching, he gazes up at the sky.
He longs to join the birds, the clouds, the stars,
the seeds floating on the breeze.
He wants to feel the earth drop from under his feet and the air lift his wings.
This morning, he hears the whoosh of fire from far away.
Lured by the sound, he follows it to the crowd gathered, looking up.
Pointing fingers to the sky.
Smiling at the spots of color drifting by.
He looks up.
And he knows.
Yes, he can fly.
Part II: Dreams
The whoosh of the burners still rings in my ears
as basket after basket lifted off before the first light of dawn.
Now color fills the sky, and dots of all shapes and sizes float by on currents unseen.
I had dreams when I was little.
I floated like the dandelion seeds, settling softly in a new land.
I played follow-the-leader around the clouds with my friends, as I watched the details of the ground below disappear.
I was freed from the bounds of earth and the shoulds and can’ts and don’ts
that kept us grounded, rooted to what was expected, to who we thought we were.
But everyone told me to stop dreaming.
Penguins can’t fly, they said.
Be happy with what you are.
A flightless bird with wings made for swimming, not soaring.
But I had a dream.
We could walk. We could swim.
Why not fly?
So I harnessed the power of flame and a vessel to capture the lift.
And today my dream carries the first
who are willing to let go of the known
and be lifted to what can be.
