FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER, one of my favorite poems has been Victor Hugo’s, “Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.“

Isn’t this poem beautiful? It sings about the principle and perception that no matter what appears to be happening, when we know who we are, then we can sing knowing that we have wings, and can easily fly up and away to safety.

While walking in the woods I watched our hawk’s nest high in the tree swaying in the wind, and felt the meaning of this poem even more deeply. Having felt for myself the bite of fear while sitting in a tree while it swayed, I thought of what it would feel like to be that high and ride through the blasts of wind that whip the tree limbs around so freely.

I imagined that if it were me, I would worry that the limb would break, and then what would I do?

And then I laughed out loud, startling a few wood creatures I am sure, with the realization of what the “knowing that she hath wings” means to a bird. If the limb would break they would simply fly away, singing as they always do with the joy of the freedom of flight.

Notice that my thought about falling began with a “what if question” that made me feel afraid. Of course I would be afraid I would fall if I didn’t find peace in the knowledge that there is always safety, and always a solution, and this knowing will act as wings, always flying me to freedom and safety.

Victor Hugo’s life’s work was profoundly influenced by his awareness of the social injustice, inequality, suffering, and uprising that was the underlying theme of France in the 1800’s, the place and time in which he lived. His writings, like “Les Miserables,” were directed at pointing out, and bringing to light, what was wrong within “the system,” so it could be corrected.

Yet, he wrote a simple and elegant poem on how to escape, without harm, the mess that the worldview dualist system makes. He wrote about how bird, faced with a weak and falling branch, “Sings, knowing that she hath wings.”

Not only does she fly away as the weak branch breaks, she sings. She sings before the need to fly. She sings in the morning in celebration of a new day. She sings in the day, not because she must, but because she can.

A Chinese proverb says, “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”

Are you singing your song?

Until we are all aware of and acting within the awareness of the oneness of what appears as mankind, aware that we are within the circle of One, and not without it, aware and acting from the Principle of the Infinite Intelligence known as Love, social injustice, inequality, and suffering will appear within the times we live within.

Yet, we do not have to be part of the suffering, we can “Sing, knowing that we have wings.” We can sing as the bird does, because we have a song.

No matter what we call the voice of the “system,” worldview, predator, or monkey mind, this voice is belligerent, loud, but subtle, demanding that we listen to it. It brings with it all the emotions that begin and end with fear, with its tag along friends called doubt, anger, discouragement, frustration, sadness, despair, and the rest of these life-hope-stealing companions of the “what if” voice of the lie called, “fear.”

Since we do live in a thought universe we must be able to recognize who is asking the question, “what if,” and who is doing the thinking. It’s hard to sing when we are within the grips of the “what if” voice of fear, but there is another “what if” voice, and it sings the song of the Infinite Principle of Love.

The “still small voice within” brings gifts of love, with its corresponding comforting feelings of hope, encouragement, possibility, joy and the rest of its friends that encourage us to “sing, knowing that we have wings.”

Sometimes this voice also says “what If,” but this “what if” is not loaded with fear, it is loaded with hope and possibilities. It sings to us that there is always an open door; there is always a solution, that we are never separate from the gifts of Love, that there is no one who has more than others within the Infinite provision and equality of the Divine.

To hear this voice we must pause and listen to the stillness within the peace of Love. To hear this voice we have to stop agreeing with the “what if” voice of fear. It may still be making noise, but we are not listening, because we have the thought wings of awareness of the omnipresence of Love.

What isn’t love is loud and insistent that we pay attention to it, like a petulant child, or a bully or even a terrorist. That doesn’t mean we bow down to it and give into its demand to be afraid. Instead we pay attention to the peace, beauty and love that is all around us and when we do this, what to do about the bully of fear becomes evident.

If we attempt to fight fear it has us in its grip. Instead, we sing knowing that we have wings, and rise above it watching it dissolve itself as it battles with itself, which is all that it knows how to do.

“Sing, knowing that you have wings,” sing with celebration, sing with gratitude. Share your song, sing of joy, sing of good, sing of the evident abundance within your life. Sing, because singing of these things reveals even more goodness, sing because it dissolves the blinders imposed by fear, and reveals the consistent care always present for you.

Sing of the abundance of your neighbors and friends, show it to them, and share it with them. We cannot be rich without all being aware of their richness.

Afraid that your clients can’t afford you, or your company can’t keep you on? Sing, knowing they have wings too, sing knowing that abundance does not come from people, places and things, but appears because you are present, the representation and idea of abundance itself

Keep singing when the wind blows, or the limb you are on begins to break. Sing, that there is nothing to fear, you are One within the One of the I Am, gather your thoughts to this place and keep them there, and let the illusion that threatens dissolve itself into the nothingness from which it came, never touching you, or your loved ones.

“Sing, knowing that you have wings.”

Beca Lewis is author of The Intent Course: Say Yes to What Moves You.