It was such a beautiful day yesterday. I can’t believe it was almost 80 degrees. It was warm! And so sunny. It’s spring break here for my kids so they were all home and we just spent the day hanging out.

I got to walk in the afternoon. I love walking. I use it as meditation time. There’s something about quietly and purposefully walking and just observing the world around me that invites in this stillness and peace that is so amazing. I am “in the flow” when I walk. I love to use that time to connect to the source of existence and to “meet” there.

Imagine, for a moment, that there is a bird raised in captivity. It doesn’t know other birds. It lives with humans. Have you seen the children’s movie Rio? Like that … this bird doesn’t know how to be a bird, it has only ever experienced life as a bird living with humans. It can’t fly … it’s never needed to fly. It doesn’t have to look for food. It is happy as a pet. It doesn’t know any other way to be, so it’s comfortable.

Life as a pet seems good. It has all the food it needs. It has shelter. It feels safe. This bird, like Blue in the movie Rio, believes it’s human. (don’t get lost here … just stick with this for a minute! We’re imagining! Using our creative ability to picture this not highly probable scenario.)  It’s never been around other birds so it doesn’t know how a bird acts, what a bird does, or even that birds exist. Its sole experience has been as a bird in a cage in a human home. It only knows that. It only sees that. It has no idea anything else is possible.

Let’s imagine that this bird one day discovers, after watching the window everyday for months, that it is like the things outside. It doesn’t know exactly what they are, what they do, why they’re there … but the bird in the cage starts to believe it is more like those things outside than the humans it knows in its home. It sees that is has more similarities with the birds outside its cage than it does with the humans inside the only home it’s ever known.

This is disconcerting to the bird. It doesn’t know what to make of it. The bird is comfortable in its home, comfortable in its position as a pet, it hasn’t ever needed to fly … it feels uncertain what this means.

Well, this bird is a meditating bird. It turns inside itself for answers. It discovers that “yes, I AM actually a bird.” and begins to see what truth is.

At this point the bird has choices.

The bird could choose to stay in its comfortable familiar environment. It could decide that life is good and that there’s never been a need to fly so why learn now? It could just choose to stay there believing that life as a pet is what is best. It could even cast off the unfamiliar truth, because it feels scary and unknown. It could decide to believe that its still a human and that that is where it is meant to be, that’s familiar after all … if it feels scary it’s not right, right?

Or, this bird could go into unfamiliar territory. It could decide that “yes, I AM A BIRD” and that is truth. It could accept its nature … not human, bird … and see that in accepting truth it CAN fly. It could decide to SEE what it’s like outside of its familiar environment. And when it goes outside and sees the other birds flying, it could decide that it looks like freedom and it feels like freedom and a bird is who it really is so accepting THAT can only bring freedom because then it knows its true potential and nature.

What does the bird gain through ignoring the truth because it’s not familiar and feeling uncertain in a NEW environment?  Does the bird gain anything in continuing to believe life as a pet in a cage with humans is what its potential is?

What does the bird gain through accepting who it really is?  Is there freedom in accepting truth? Is there something to be gained through learning its true nature?

As I walked yesterday, I thought a great deal about who I am. Who each of us is. And I realized I KNOW who I am. I am not this. I am not this body in this world. I am experiencing this experience as this person, but that’s not who I really am.

I am something greater. I am a piece, a part, made up of … divinity. I am a spirit being having a human experience. I  CAN fly!

What do I gain from ignoring that truth? Is there anything to be gained? What comes from me not accepting and owning that I am not what I appear to be, and my nature comes from somewhere else?

What could be gained through acceptance of my TRUE nature?  Everything right?! When I accept who I really am, I gain understanding of my true potential!  Like the bird learning that it can fly … without acceptance of itself AS a bird, it has no idea.  When it understands who and what it is, flying IS the way! There is not another way.

We are like that bird. Each of us something greater than we see and know here. And it’s awkward and unfamiliar and maybe even a little uncomfortable accepting that truth because we’ve never been anything else, that we can remember, than these bodies on this earth. We’re comfortable here because it’s what we’ve known as our home for as long as we can remember. Accepting new things brings an unfamiliarity that feels scary at first because it’s new and unfamiliar. New and unfamiliar is ALWAYS awkward.

Wouldn’t it be a shame to ignore what truth is just because it’s awkward at first? Just because we have to accept it and own it before it becomes familiar and freeing?

Wouldn’t it be terrible to later find out that we could have been flying all along but we chose to stay in the cage because that felt familiar?

The cage is open and we ARE free!  We CAN see outside of what is familiar and comfortable into unfamiliar truths. They’re not false because they feel awkward … look and see … they’re awkward because they’re unfamiliar. But as you learn and believe in truth, it BECOMES familiar and you begin to REMEMBER that “oh yes! I AM this. This IS truth. and this DOES feel like peace and freedom.”

Accepting your true nature brings peace. Acceptance of who you REALLY are brings joy. Acceptance of your divine role in existence brings an understanding of your divine potential and gives you wings to fly!

Step out of the cage and into the air where,  yes, it will feel awkward at first, and then in a moment it will feel better, and pretty soon you will see that the peace, freedom, joy, light, love, and truth of what you’ve accepted and are now experiencing is far greater than any comfort you had in that cage.

Who you are, fundamentally, foundationally, wholly and unchangeably is for you to discover. I can’t tell you who you are. I know me, so I could tell you who I am and what my role is and how I’m flying … but you must experience who YOU are, individually, and from the source of  your existence.

When you discover who you are you WILL see that you had wings all along, and you will LOVE to fly.  The joy and peace in that place will astound you. You will wonder what you were doing believing the illusion when you could have known truth the whole time. You will be free when you accept your true nature. You will know joy in that acceptance. You will experience peace in truth. That much I know.