Free to Believe,

When my mother would ask me what I wanted to be when I was grown, every time, hope swelling, I would gaze up and tell her, “I want to be a bird”. I remember sitting in the back garden apple tree, imagination bursting, wondering, “Maybe if I wait here, my wings will grow and I’ll be like them too”.

I think maybe I marvelled at the way they took flight into freedom, and how their youthful spirit never seemed to fade. I think perhaps I loved the way they continued to sing their song in all of the seasons, and how they made me a little homesick for places I’d never been.

When my mother would ask me what I wanted to be when I was grown, I think what I really meant to tell her was that I wanted to be as free as them. As bold as them. As weightless as them. As carefree in the care of Another as them. For there to be no confinements to where I could reach and no borders to where I could bound.

Even now, I still want to be a little like them. I hope we can still be a little like them. And I hope that I still grow up believing, hope swelling, imagination bursting, that we can be anything at all.