“When once you have tasted flight you will always walk the earth with your eyes tuned skyward:  for there you have been and there you will always be.”

— Henry Van Dyke

It is truly amazing that when you are listening to your soul and walking through life with eyes wide open — heart wide open — that everywhere you turn, you hear words that uplift you, encourage you, and speak to your deepest dreams.

Henry Van Dyke was born in 1852.  He came into a world where all travel took place on the ground, and I am sure his parents never entertained the idea that flight was for anything but the birds.  It is hard to imagine how exciting it would have been for a young man in the days of his contemporaries, the Wright brothers, to hear the tales of winged objects that floated on the breeze and could carry him aloft.  Apparently, Mr. Van Dyke lived to soar among the clouds, and it changed his perspective so much that he said a part of him would always be there.  When we live tethered to the Earth, we tend to see only what lies at eye-level or below.  After all, that is the world we live in; and embracing that world wholeheartedly is what makes us feel truly alive.

It was the imagination of the Wrights, who were not satisfied with being earthbound, that lifted everyone from their time on to a new level of aspiration.  Now we could leave the ground behind us and soar with the birds.  Now we could look to the sky and experience a whole new view of our world.  Now we could be captivated by the notion that there is more to see than we can encounter by keeping our feet on the ground.

Not everyone aspires to aviation.  Although I love the convenience of flying to my destination when I travel, it is not my passion to get my pilot’s license and spend all my time in the clouds.  In spite of this, Van Dyke’s words touch a place in me and call my soul to take flight.  I live on planet Earth.  There is no escaping its gravity and its very tangible presence.  I must work and sleep and eat and play and do all the things that keep me alive and healthy; but there is more to being alive than just these things.  Our world is noisy; and the voice of our soul — the voice of our heart — often seems muffled in the midst of the loud distraction that exists in the place where we are rooted.  Our soul’s voice is quiet, but we can hear it if we choose to.  All it takes is the desire to tune out the distracting noises and listen with all our hearts.  When the voice of the soul breaks through and reaches the ears of our heart, we suddenly find that we can soar with the eagles.  We are lifted out of our purely physical existence and taken to a place where we have the perspective to sort out what is real — what is soul — and leave behind the noise and chaos.

Henry Van Dyke was right.  Once you find your wings, once you take flight, a part of you will always be in that other place.  And when that happens, the noisy, mundane world begins to shine with the true light that has always existed in the shadows of what is tangible.  Today is a perfect day for flying.  Open your ears — open your heart — and hear the voice of your soul.  I guarantee that no matter how difficult your day might be, you will find that you’re walking on air.