Like many kids, I often fantasized about the extraordinary power of unassisted flight and what that limitless freedom might feel like. Lying bored in bed, I would gaze out my window mesmerized by birds coasting gracefully on wind currents, jealousy surging inside. If only I too could sprout magnificent wings and take to the open skies unfettered!
In my rich imagination, I conjured up endless aerial adventures exploring the world by air, chasing clouds above dazzling landscapes not yet trampled by human feet. I dreamed of effortlessly escaping troubles on earth through soaring ascension. Haven't we all secretly yearned to flee unwanted reality or hardships even fleetingly by simply taking wing independently?
Even in adulthood, seeing jetliners rip through clouds miles above traffic jams, I would smile wistfully, imagining the view and liberation just outside my reach. My pedestrian life felt infinitely small compared to the boundless breadth of blue sky symbolizing limitless potential. Surely no cubicle or routine responsibility could touch me once airborne!
How blissful it might feel escaping the office's fluorescent artificial lights and deadlines by bursting through double doors into sprinting down an open field. As my legs pumped faster feeling earth's gravitational pull loosening, I would stretch open my arms while tilting my chin skywards. Then suddenly my feet would lift off the grass without warning! With just a gentle forward lean, I would be coasting gracefully over treetops towards fluffy white clouds beckoning in the distance.
Joyful laughter would erupt involuntarily feeling the cold clear air buffeting my face and tugging playfully at my clothing. Looking towards the ground gradually receding below, my breath would catch witnessing cars shrinking to ants and neighborhoods becoming a living map. Turning effortless pirouettes midair as the last worries of work drifted far behind me would fill me with euphoric peace.
Circling slowly around billowing cloud shapes, I would trail my fingers through chilling mist, scattering shadows across green patchwork fields unfolding for miles until meeting the glinting sea's edge. I imagine drawing in the clouds wispy secrets to spontaneously sketch whimsical images across the sky's canvas just because I can!
Twisting upwards, I would pierce the cloud layer soaring into a crystal blue cathedral with just my wings keeping me aloft. I would float gently backwards navigating on cushions of air, softly conducting the symphony of wind with my outstretched fingertips. These ancient elements singing across my skin bond us in salty kinship. Eventually, I would drift lazily on my back basking in solitude, hypnotically watch puffy castles billowing by.
Far below my earthly worries sit safely stowed, unable to dampen my peace or stall this freedom found in stealing moments seized boldly for living fully. Adventure summons ahead always out of reach...and thank goodness, because starry eternity peeks just over the atmospheric curtain waiting to envelope my wings again tomorrow.
Whenever the mundane modern grind starts dimming my spirit, I remember winged dreams holding sacred space for that gangly imaginative kid still crouching quietly inside. She finds home easing into bold cartwheels with arms outstretched - those brief seconds of upside down always restoring enchanted belief that each new day offers freshly unlocked possibilities if we dare ourselves color outside conventional lines.
Even though mankind may never biologically evolve zipping through skies solo, I smile knowing escapist fantasies Neverland-bound keep our pioneering hearts and souls breathing. No one can regulate our ability to periodically rescue inhibited imagination from adult practicalities that frequently try dimming the poetry of human experience. We remember to counterbalance reality's heaviness through periodic play and levity.
Slipping occasionally into starry-eyed curiosity fuels innovation and compassion to improve life on this strange shared rock in space. Our species depends on outliers and radicals who insist vigorously on pushing perceived limits. So never stop glancing wistfully towards the skies as you walk heads down absorbed in your glowing screens. Let yourself get sprinkled occasionally with that pixie dust sense of wonder opening up expansiveness beyond physical worlds we occupy.
All it takes is stilling the static long enough for your inner child to quietly remind - if crazy dreams like lifting effortlessly off the ground simply by willing it already seem possible in rate slumbering moments... then surely life reserves right to surprise us with other hidden magic as well when courage steadies our gaze.