Defeat The What If Fear Question
Sing — Knowing That You Have Wings
For as long as I can remember, one of my favorite poems has been Victor Hugo’s, “Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.”
Isn’t this poem beautiful? It sings about the principle and perception that no matter what appears to be happening, when we know who we are, we can sing knowing that we have wings and can easily fly up and away to safety.
While walking in the woods, I watched a hawk’s nest high in the tree swaying in the wind and felt the meaning of this poem even more deeply.
Having felt the bite of fear while sitting high in a tree while it swayed, I thought of what it would feel like to be that high and ride through the blasts of wind that whip the tree limbs around so freely.
I imagined that if it were me, I would worry that the limb would break, and then what would I do?
And then I laughed out loud, startling a few wood creatures, I’m sure, with the realization of what “knowing that she hath wings” means to a bird. If the limb would break, they would simply fly away, singing as they always do with the joy of the freedom of flight.
Notice that my thought about falling began with a “what if” question that made me afraid. Of course, I would be afraid if I didn’t find peace knowing that there is always safety and a solution, and this knowing will act as wings, always flying me to freedom and safety.
Victor Hugo’s life and work were profoundly influenced by his awareness of social injustice, inequality, suffering, and uprising, which was the underlying theme of France in the 1800s, the place and time in which he lived.
His writings, like Les Misérables, were directed at pointing out and bringing to light what was wrong within “the system” so it could be corrected.
Yet, he wrote a simple and elegant poem on how to escape, without harm, the mess that the worldview dualist system makes.
He wrote about the bird facing a weak and falling branch: "Sings, knowing that she hath wings.”
Not only does she fly away as the weak branch breaks, but she also sings.
She sings before the need to fly. She sings in the morning in celebration of a new day. She sings during the day, not because she must but because she can.
A Chinese proverb says, “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”
Are you singing your song?
Until we are all aware of and acting within the awareness of the oneness of what appears as mankind, aware that we are within the circle of One, and not without it, aware and acting from the Principle of the Infinite Intelligence known as Love, social injustice, inequality, and suffering will appear within the times we live within.
Yet, we don't have to be part of the suffering.
We can “Sing, knowing that we have wings.” We can sing as the bird does because we have a song.
No matter what we call the voice of the “system,” worldview, predator, or monkey mind, this voice is belligerent, loud, but subtle, demanding that we listen to it.
It brings with it all the emotions that begin and end with fear, with its tag-along friends doubt, anger, discouragement, frustration, sadness, despair, and the rest of these life-hope-stealing companions of the “what if” voice of the lie called fear.
Since we live in a thought universe, we must recognize who is asking “what if” and who is doing the thinking.
It’s hard to sing when we are in the grips of the “what if” voice of fear, but there is another “what if” voice that sings the song of the Infinite Principle of Love.
The “still small voice within” brings gifts of love with corresponding comforting feelings of hope, encouragement, possibility, and joy. The rest of its friends encourage us to “sing, knowing that we have wings.”
Sometimes this voice also says “what if,” but this “what if” is not loaded with fear, it is loaded with hope and possibilities.
It sings to us that there is always an open door, that there is always a solution, that we are never separate from the gifts of Love, and that no one has more than others within the Infinite provision and equality of the Divine.
To hear this voice, we must pause and listen to the stillness within the peace of Love.
We must stop agreeing with the “what if” voice of fear to hear this voice. It may still make noise, but we are not listening because we have the thought wings of awareness of the omnipresence of Love.
What isn’t love is loud and insistent that we pay attention to it, like a petulant child, a bully, or even a terrorist.
That doesn’t mean we bow down to it and give in to its demand to be afraid. Instead, we pay attention to the peace, beauty, and love that is all around us, and when we do this, what to do about the bully of fear becomes clear.
If we attempt to fight fear, it will have us in its grip.
Instead, we sing, knowing that we have wings, and rise above it, watching it dissolve itself as it battles with itself, which is all that it knows how to do.
“Sing, knowing that you have wings,” sing with celebration, sing with gratitude.
Share your song, sing of joy. Sing of good, and sing of the evident abundance within your life. Sing, because singing about these things reveals even more goodness. Sing because it dissolves the blinders imposed by fear and reveals the consistent care that is always present for you.
Sing of the abundance of your neighbors and friends, show it to them, and share it with them. We cannot be rich without all being aware of their richness.
Are you afraid that your clients can’t afford you or that your company can’t keep you?
Sing, knowing they have wings too, knowing that abundance does not come from people, places, and things but appears because you are present, the representation and idea of abundance itself.
Keep singing when the wind blows or the limb you are on breaks.
Sing that there is nothing to fear. You are One within the One of the I Am.
Gather your thoughts, bring them to this place, and keep them there.
Let the illusion that threatens dissolve into the nothingness from which it came, never touching you or your loved ones.
“Sing, knowing that you have wings.”
