“Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.”
~Victor Hugo
With Easter just behind us, it seems an appropriate topic, no?
But that’s the thing. We most often associate faith with religious belief–it’s more than that. Faith is believing in something, an all-consuming knowing and passionate belief. The best version of faith, of course, is that which is supported by reason, perhaps even documentable proof. I can have faith in my family’s devotion to one another. One can have faith in a certain person’s dedication to their work. Faith often manifests itself quite firmly in a vocal conscious, but it is inherently a subconscious detail–for it is something so deeply imbedded in us, that we need not truly think on it to know it is true in our minds.
And that’s the key, by the way: “in our minds.” Faith varies, person to person. As it should be. For no one should suffer the woes of blind faith–the mob mentality faith, belief not for the sake of ourselves, but because others would have us believe it so–for this, as matched by few others, has a potential for such devastating acts the world itself should (and has) quiver in dread of it.
Faith is, above all things, personal. So think: what do you have faith in?
“Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.”
~Rabindranath Tagore
“Faith and doubt both are needed – not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve.”
~Lillian Smith
The Waking Den 