Fly, Be Free

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“You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so don’t. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.” – Rumi

A friend of mine recently returned from two weeks of vacation in Iceland. He and his wife enjoyed a long list of fun activities: hiking, camping, eating new foods, exploring unusual terrain.

When I asked him what his favorite thing from the trip was, he quickly responded, “Releasing baby puffins.”

Apparently when these baby puffins learn to fly, they are supposed to head out to sea. But a good number of them get confused and fly into town instead.

This is a common enough occurrence that the townspeople have a process: they box up the baby puffins and take them to a particular vet. The vet checks them out to make sure they don’t have any issues. If they are good, the townspeople take the box with the baby puffin to the edge of the water and release them.

My friend and his wife were at the vet when a guy brought in ten boxes with baby puffins. Once the vet gave them the okay, my friend and his wife got to take one box to the sea. There they released the baby puffin.

As he finished his story, I felt a shiver from head to toe. It feels akin to writing to me — releasing the warm and tender things we box up. Fly – and be free!

(featured photo is from Pexels)

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52 thoughts on “Fly, Be Free”

  4. I have never thought about it that way, but it makes sense. We all have a story to tell and it matters to us; we only hope it matters and connects with the listener\reader. Great quote and moving story. Monday is off to a wonderful start, for the both of us. Fly free!

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  5. This alone is worth a trip to Iceland – how adorable and cute. Also kinda endearing that even in nature, the children sometimes need an extra layer of support to be set free into the world. 💕🙏🐧

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  8. Freedom of human beings and careful treatment of flora and fauna are no small issues right now, as is our need for clean water and air. Too many of our countrymen would say only some people should be given an equal place and opportunity in the world with them, as Rumi is saying. If we believe in his words it is time to say so and act.

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  11. Releasing boxed-up baby puffins back into the sea is such an adorable picture—and comparing that to the vulnerability of writing is absolute perfection! Releasing our tender, tucked-away words into the world really does feel like giving them wings. Such an uplifting start to the week, Wynne!

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  20. I too love puffins for their distinctive cuteness. But if you hadn’t drawn it to my attention, Wynne, I would’ve missed the analogy to writing. You’re right–each week as I hit the Publish-button for my blog post, it IS like releasing an offspring, sending it off to fly free in the blogosphere!

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  26. I’ve read before about the puffins of Iceland. Apparently, the tradition is so followed, that children are even excused from school for a time to help with the rescues. The birds can be killed by city pets if they’re not rescued soon enough.

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