Take Flight

Part of a flock of Canadian Geese coming in to land on Medicine Lake

This morning I went down to Medicine Lake to see how many migrating birds were on the lake. As I was approaching the lake a huge flock of geese flew over my head, honking loudly as they flew. There were about 3 times as many geese in the flock as you see in this photo.

The sight and sound of the geese soaring above me caused my spirit to

Take Flight

with joy right along with them.

Hope is the thing with feathers  
That perches in the soul,  
And sings the tune without the words,  
And never stops at all,  
   
And sweetest in the gale is heard;          
And sore must be the storm  
That could abash the little bird  
That kept so many warm.
   — Emily Dickinson

My heart soared and swooped right along with them. Does your spirit also take flight when you watch flocks of birds soaring overhead?

There weren’t as many Trumpeter Swans on the lake as there were a few days ago but there were still several near the spot I chose. I was able to walk on what was lake bed earlier this year, but because of the drought in our area was now almost completely dry land.

A pair of trumpeter swans lifted their heads up and started honking loudly right after the flock of geese landed on the lake. I could almost translate their honks to, “There goes the neighborhood.” Soon they took flight themselves. Watching how hard these large heavy birds had to work to take flight astonished me. Here is a sequence of photos I made as they slowly took flight. At points they look like they are running on the surface of the water. What an amazement and wonder bird flight is to me!

Taking Flight — the Creative Journey

Watching the swans take flight reminded me a little bit of the creative journey. Sometimes it takes a lot of work and struggle for a creative idea to take flight. It can be hard breaking the inertial gravity of expectation and fear. For me it helps to put myself into places where my heart naturally takes flight, like watching wild birds, hiking in the woods, and photographing flowers. These activities bring me such joy that the joy carries over into my projects and helps encourage me to keep on slogging through the slow early stages of some projects.

Birds in Flight

Not as a multitude, but as one. Caught in the rush of an instant only to be contained
In an illusion of light once depicted in a holographic existence
And to give weight to the meaning of lightness. Here, he pointed

To the directions of his imprisonment. How the wings
Have too much dulled and to take wing must orchestrate
The shattering of mirrors: fragile, fine, acicular. The yellowing

Brightness is in the proximity to the light, like how one recognizes beneath
The lightbulb the chick nesting within an egg, as to trace how thick
Illusions go in the labyrinth of plurality. Now, no matter what,

They seem a bouquet of bougainvilla on the palms, dreaming to be set free.

This may be true of desire. One first keeps to heart
The simplest things one loved in childhood: the chase after
A kite broken loose, not minding the prickling thorns,

The mimosa’s curtsey to the sole. That is what freedom simply is.
Not playing patintero with shadows. Not captive to the multiplicity
Of false geometry. Almost brittle but original.

   — Enrique Villasis, translation by Bernard Capinpin

What helps you take flight in your creative journey and in your life?

May you walk in beauty.

I saw many snail shells on the former lake bed as I walked.