“Light as a feather” the saying goes….what an enchanting image, that of a feather being lifted by the breeze, carried in the air and then gently laid on the ground. It is an image that fascinates us, perhaps because on so many levels, we wish we could be like that feather – as light as that feather – not afraid of or resisting the wind that lifts it, that carries it and then lays it to rest. A lightness that accepts that while it could fly, it has to return to the resting place of the Earth. 

There are lessons here for us, as with every other marvel in the natural world – marvels that we blindly see as mundane. 

In Egyptian mythology, after death our hearts are weighed against a feather, a weighing that determines whether our hearts are sufficiently light to allow our soul’s journey to a heavenly paradise. 

A challenge indeed. This human existence weighs on us in so many ways, filling our hearts with gladness, sadness and every emotion in between. How do we make our hearts light? How do we release the heaviness of the world and our earthly existence? Are we not supposed to carry our lessons from this lifetime into the other? How do we do that, while ensuring our hearts remain as light as a feather? 

My heart wants to know. My heart yearns to be light.