Hope Within

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: 

it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.
We are like eggs at present. 

And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg.
We must be hatched or go bad.

~ C.S. Lewis

I have eggs on the brain lately.

I suppose that it could be that we just celebrated Easter and there were colored eggs to be created. 

My daughter and I dabbed paint on our eggs and smooshed them around in plastic baggies for this cool tie dyed, marbelized effect. They are almost too pretty to eat. (Has anyone else ever collected the shells of brightly colored Easter eggs in the hopes of doing miscellaneous craft projects with them? Things like decoupaging them to a picture frame like a funky mosaic? No? Okay, well, then that is just me.)

Did you know that if you hold an egg in your hand it will withstand the pressure and not crack? Their shape makes them perfectly able to withstand a great force of pressure, which is comforting to know when your mother is sitting on you all the time.

Eggs offer up all potential. They are full of promise and symbols of new life. In some traditions, eggs symbolize the balance of the Universe, containing all life, the yin and yang of male and female, yolk and white. Eggs are full of possibilities.

There is mystery hiding within an egg. It is born and yet it is not yet fully developed. It has everything within it to become all it can be but yet it is not ready to fully live until it breaks through its own shell. The bird cannot stay within that cozy world forever, sooner or later it gets cramped in that tiny framework and it is time to test the wings. But if you tap into it and try to coax it out before it is ready, it will die. That little bird must be left to the hard task of busting into the world on its own.

So, too, are we like that egg. There is a massive amount of hope within us but we will never truly live until we break out of our own shell, throw off our artificial protections so that we can truly experience all that there is.


Maybe it is time that I need to be reminded that I am like that egg. I need to let go of the coziness of the limited world that I have come to find myself in and gather courage to chip away at that shell. Sure, it would be easier if someone just handed me wings to fly all bound up with a satin ribbon, but they wouldn't be my wings. I need to earn them. By working my own way out of my protections that I have surrounded myself with, I will find that not only do I have wings to fly but the heart to soar.

Lately, I feel like I am standing on a precipice of dizzying heights, facing a new vista, trying not to look down, yet trying to keep a firm grip on the nest that I have known. Yet things have been set in motion and there is no way that I can cram myself back into the shell from which I have emerged.

{hope within available on Etsy}

It is time to spread my wings and fly.

Your turn...

What protective shell have you surrounded yourself with?
What can you do to earn your wings to fly?
What hopes lie within you?

P.S. It is my day to post over on Earrings Everyday. Come on over and check it out!