I’m staring out my window, daydreaming…I see a white ibis across the road. It dips its bill into the water of a small retention pond, stretching and flapping its sizable wings. It clamps down on something and begins to awkwardly take flight. These large birds are beautiful but not at all graceful in flight, until they have attained a height at which they can begin to soar. They do that very well.
One of my favorite classic films from the 70’s, “The Other”, has a scene in which the mildly psychic grandmother plays “the game” with her twin grandsons. She teaches them to use the powers of mind-over-matter projection to do things like focus on a crow and be able to see what it sees as it flies through the air.
I’m focusing on that ibis. I want to fly above the pond. I want to fly above the corporate office buildings and meticulously landscaped lawns and parking lots. I want to fly above Heathrow, looking down on the golf courses and mansions with their screened-in swimming pools. I want to fly away.
But my reverie fades to reality as a delicate tone indicates a newly-received email and I avert my stare from the fauna of the outside sunny and free world and focus on my computer monitor emblazoned with the company logo desktop wallpaper calling me back to work.
Ever have one of those days where it seems to be such an arduous chore to keep from just walking out of the building, jumping in your car and driving away, right there and then with no forethought or planning, to places unknown? You just want to go. Somewhere. Anywhere.
But we don’t. We stay and do what’s needed. We endure the waiver of our right to total freedom because, of course, that right really doesn’t exist. It’s an illusion.
Oh nothing would physically prevent me from acting on a fleeting impulse such as this, and, with apologetic reparations at a future time, it’s likely that major negative ramifications could be avoided. Call it sanity time, or, do the expected, and just fallaciously declare sudden illness caused the impromptu departure.
It’s not like I haven’t done it before.
But not today. I’m comfortable here and wouldn’t jeopardize my now solidly founded reputation as a responsible and dependable team member.
But in my heart lingers the wanderlust.
And it whispers softly to my soul, promising me that on some plane somewhere, in some alternate reality, I soar through the sun kissed clouds and gaily fly free amongst the ibises, with not a care or concern in the world.