As the plane soared into the air and I saw the glittering arc of the South shore disappearing below me, I thought of Hope, the young Bermuda longtail I rescued six weeks ago from the beach below our house.

Today, Hope will be released at Nonsuch Island, strong enough and old enough to make her maiden flight alone across the vast wilderness of the Southern Ocean.

Guided by instinct and an unfathomable sense of direction, she will find her feeding grounds in the Sargasso Sea.

In that mysterious floating expanse of seaweed, she will make her life until an inner voice calls her to return to Bermuda.

Three years from now, she will be back, searching for a mate above the same rocky cliffs where she was born.

In a dizzying and ecstatic dance high above the jagged reefs and turquoise waves, she will consummate a cycle far older than civilisation, a resplendent miracle of evolution amid the vibrant blue sky and towering clouds of summer.

Fearless little Hope, buffeted by storms through the darkness of night, then warmed by the rising sun above the silver mirror of the sea. On and on she flies.

“How strong this will to live!” I thought, as I looked through the plane’s porthole at the curve of the empty horizon.

Today, I was travelling to see my daughter, Maria, at her house in Bar Harbour, Maine.

I thought of her journey through life and the journeys so many of us take into the unknown guided both by circumstance and desire — and, if we are fortunate, the loving hands of our parents.

When Maria was 13, she boarded her first plane alone and flew from our home in Siberia to New York City. I had come some months before her on a research grant and I had applied for two visas, one for each of us, when I left Russia.

I had promised myself when I was her age that I would escape and see the West. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was now possible and I wanted more than anything to share that dream with her.

As fearless as little Hope, my young daughter flew into a new life far, far away.

From the clapboard wooden houses and snow filled streets of Irkutsk, Siberia, she walked off the jetway and into my waiting arms at JFK.

“We are going to Times Square,” I said through my tears.

When I look back 25 years to that day, I laugh at my choice for her first foreign experience, yet it was perfect! For a girl of her age, the brilliant lights and towering skyscrapers, the flow of traffic and people were simply magical, and she was brimming with excitement.

To stand with her in the centre of New York City, amid the neon extravaganza of countless billboards and the fabled home of Broadway shows, was the epitome of our dreams.

Maria stayed in America and grew up to be a scientist. Her field is Alzheimer’s research.

As I looked down at the ocean below me, I thought of how our lives are guided by choices. To realise those choices, like Hope, we have to be fearless and leap into the unknown. And often, we need helping hands along the way.

• Nina London is the founder of Mermaid Wellness Centre for Women and a certified Chi Gong and Laughter Yoga teacher. Her mission is to support and inspire mature women to make positive changes in their bodies and minds. Contact her at ninalondon.com and on Instagram: @coachninalondon