freedom: the original state of the soul

The soul is a liberated being. It flies. It is not bound by earthly restraints, not by the weight of the body or by gravity.

I sometimes watch my face in the reflection of a passing window or mirror as I amble through my days. I recognise that face. She has accompanied me through a miscellany of life's highs and lows. Elated triumphs and destitute defeats. Love stories and heartbreaks. Intercontinental moves and quiet homemaking.

But my eyes have changed. They repeatedly change, reflecting the deep sorrow and unbridled joy that each choice has brought.

Gazing into them I often murmur “I love you” as I pass, a hopeful consolation for the choices I’ve made that have brought pain to those eyes that are mine set into the skull that is mine, living a life that is mine.

Freedom has been a driving force for most of this life that is mine.

The freedom to let my soul fly free, untethered from the expectations of ambition, wanting more things, being busy, and 'having it all'.

In my hasty youth, I chased freedom like a butterfly. Flitting from place to place, country to country, experience to experience, wanting to take the pollen from each place to share it with another, searching for the parts of my soul that had fractured at the shock of the constraints the human life places on us.

We are instantly upon landing bound by many things we do not want to do.

Now, I understand that the sense of freedom we all yearn for is accessible by giving ourselves the scope of being as close to our true nature as possible.

Without exertion, the essential essence of Being.

In the same way that grass grows without any effort. Clouds form, rain comes, and the sun shines. Nature unfolds in an inexorable symphony of what it is.

It goes against every deeply rooted cultural assumption of what a meaningful and significant life should look like. By conventional standards, we are supposed to have on display wealth, visibility, impact and outrageous busyness in accumulating those external measures.

In my finding of where our soul’s yearning for freedom fits into this, I have quickly discovered that society’s metrics of success are a myth.

A compelling spell that we have all fallen under.