When we watch a bird such as a red-tailed hawk or an eagle gracefully riding the rising air currents, it seems almost effortless. They slowly turn, rising and falling. When something on the ground draws their interest, they may suddenly move their wings back and swoop downwards.
It took humans many centuries to discover the secret of flight and successfully take off from the ground. A simple explanation of why a relatively heavy plane can lift off the ground and fly through the air is that the shape of a plane’s wings causes the air to flow faster on the top side of the wing than on the bottom. Once the air rises above the wing in the front, it continues flowing upwards, then plunges backwards and downward behind the wing. It is the downward force of the air behind the wing that provides the lift.
What can we learn from this phenomena? The first thing is that we are built for flying spiritually. When we take time for spiritual practice, we exercise those spiritual muscles, our wings to fly. Our spiritual practice could be time in silent meditation, perhaps just focusing on our breath. It could be time spent contemplating Divine Principles like Oneness, Love, or Peace. It could be a walking meditation, yoga, lifting our voice in song, listening to inspired music ore reading inspired writings that lift our hearts.
Just as the plane’s angle of attack affects its lift, directing the angle of our focus towards the Divine, towards God, increases the power of our prayer and our spiritual practice. Increasing the feeling and faith behind our prayer is like increasing the power and speed of our plane. As we spread our wings and allow Spirit to lift us towards the heavens, we can trust that God is the wind beneath and above our wings. We can choose to leisurely and gracefully soar and survey the earth. We can also choose whether and when to pull in our wings slightly and direct the Power and Presence of God into action. This is the miracle of flying with God as our pilot. Spiritual practice brings our minds and hearts into alignment with Divine Guidance, with the optimum speed and angle of attack, and lifts us up to soar with the eagles.
