Don't Be Like a Pigeon

I live in Arizona where the summers can get as hot as 118 degrees in the summer. Easy tasks can become momentary reminders to head back inside to the safety of the air conditioning. Sweltering heat causes sidewalks and roads to become mini stovetops where, if shoeless, you can literally burn your feet.

I tell you this for a reason.

This past summer I was driving through my neighborhood and became bombarded with the large amount of pigeons walking in the road, blocking my driving path. Yes, walking.

I’d patiently wait for them to walk out of my way so I could continue down the road. They’d look at me dumbfounded that I’d interrupted their daily congregation in the middle of the road and slowly walk across the street to the sidewalk.

Yes, again, I said walking.

Frustrated one morning, and running late to work, I found myself yelling at the pigeons in the road as they scurried away, “Oh my goodness! You CAN FLY! Why are you walking?!”

It was in that moment I learned a valuable lesson from the pigeons.

It’s time to FLY.

I had to ask myself a few serious questions:

Where in your life are you walking, when you were built to soar?

Where in your life are you scuttling around when you’ve got wings to fly?

I thought of the pigeons. Made with wings. Given the beautiful gift of flying. Yet, they scamper across hot (skillet temperature) sidewalks and asphalt with their feet. Choosing to take the hardest path (and hottest). Not utilizing the God-given gift to fly, even at the cost of their own safety. I’ve seen plenty of pigeons die because they would rather walk out of the street then fly.

Where in my life am I walking when I can be flying?

Where in your life are you walking when you can be soaring?

It can be any part of you life—work, relationships, physical exercise, emotionally, or, even spiritually. Ask yourself. Where am I walking, when I can be flying in that area?

Don’t weigh yourself down with an endless to-do list of tasks and excessiveness, instead, really analyze your life and the areas you can improve. Then, take a deep breath and take one momentary move in that direction.

But, don’t walk, my friend.

You’ve got wings of potential, talent, gifts, beauty, laughter, friendship—a flair for life that no one else on this earth has.

It’s time for you to fly.