“Dear God. Make me a bird. So I
could fly far. Far, far away from here”
Do not fear the open world. Never
in the history of men has the world been so vast, where human knowledge of each
continents, land and sea increases every day, and yet, no corner of the world
is too far away or isolated that it is inaccessible by a determined and
imaginative man.
Within many of us lies a desire
to travel, some more so than others, to see the majesty of what the world has
to offer, to experience living in cultures far from our own, to witness the
miracle of nature in its untainted, unhindered state, and to stand agog at the
prowess of human science, technology and engineering.
And yet for most of us this dream
is never fulfilled. We delay the pursuit of adventure and although the desire itself
never goes away, the will to do something about it dies a slow sure death. We
make self-defeating excuses for which we hold up as a worn-out shield against
the dogged belief that we are short-changing ourselves in living a fuller life.
It could be monetary limits; it may be constraints of familial obligations;
maybe it is an unwilling partner who doesn’t share this dream. Whatever the
excuse is, I submit that it all boils down to one thing – fear. Fear of facing
the consequences of a wrong decision. Fear that there is no longer time to move
to a country not of your birth as youth slips away, as they always do. Well,
let me tell you, it is never too late to fly. The only time when it is too late
is when you are dead. Some people may be privileged enough to be given
opportunities when they were younger, but there is no law that prohibits an
older person from seeking for pastures of a different type and colour, across
the fences we call oceans and seas.
There is no stronger prison in
the world than the prison of our own construction. We allow our fears to form
steel bars and brick walls around us, and our excuses, the wardens. Only when
we stop making excuses for ourselves do we regain control of the direction of
our lives. And only when we regain control of the direction, can we point it
towards the places we want to go.
And oh, the places you can go.
One of the giants in literature,
Dr. Seuss, wrote:
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose.”
The things you will be amazed by,
the experiences to be experienced when you travel, and really travel, not just
sight-seeing or holidaying, is limited only by your imagination. Write your
bucket list today, share it with your loved ones and your friends to make it
real, make it a part of the world that you live in, rather than just a vague
intangible list residing in the back of your heart and mind.
God did give us wings – we just
call them feet.
Of course, you will certainly
meet challenges along your journey. One cannot enjoy the view from the pinnacle
of a mountain without enduring and conquering the ascension. This is when your
creativity and ability to adapt is tested. When you are out of your comfort
zone, you may surprise even yourself in discovering fortitude and talent that
you would have never known you had if you had not set out on your voyage. Do
not give up easily, and most importantly, do not let fear handicap you. If
there is ever one advice that I hold dear to me, it is that I will always have
a home back in my own country. What is the worst that I have to fear, then?
Make me a bird so that I may fly
far away.
The first line of this little
piece of musing is a quote from the movie “Forrest Gump”. A young Jenny prayed
to be taken away from the abuses of her father. I may have hijacked it for my
own purposes, but everyone has a reason to pray for flights to where their
hearts desire.
What is your reason?
(Recommended reading for the
young and the old, and everyone between young and old, Dr Seuss “Oh, The Places You’ll Go)
