Elisabeth Ireland

“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask “What if I fall?”
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?”
― Erin Hanson

I’ve had this saying running through my mind a lot lately. You see, I have a huge fear of failure. I tend to get caught up on the “What if I fall?” part and I freeze up, thinking about all the pitfalls and what-ifs. My dreams and ideas take off only to be quickly pulled back down to earth out of fear of a fall. Because if I fall, it would confirm the deep lie that I tell myself: “I’m not good enough.”

But what if I fly? Honestly, I cannot fathom that at times. Flying is a scary thing and in the discomfort of fear, I have become comfortable. So there I sit, desperately wanting to break away from the fear, but the fear has become a warm, fuzzy blanket I pull over my head to protect me from the hurt.

But, as the poem says, there is freedom waiting. Fear clips our wings and causes us to be trapped and we don’t stop to recognize the freedom we could have. I pray for the day I conquer fear. I want to fly.