freedom to me

freedom to me is to dance with reckless abandon. freedom to me is a good night's sleep. it's a stroll by myself down the street. it's the time and space to think and read and write and dream.

freedom to me is to be understood. to get to know and embrace different people. freedom to me is a place to call my own, knowing it isn't really mine at all—the beach, a wooded trail, a back road, a nation.

freedom to me is a stint without my son having seizures. it's a walk down the block without him balking. it's a day when he's unencumbered by the miseries which tend to stalk him. it's a week without him moaning and shrieking.

freedom to me is sipping from a mug of coffee or glass of wine in the garden. it's listening to music as loud as i want. it's having a spouse who loves deeply my crazy notions, jokes and idiosyncrasies.

freedom to me is to offer a big table. it's the ability to give. freedom means everyone has healthcare, can afford to pay their bills, live in safe neighborhoods. freedom to me is a place where people can love who they love, worship how they please—or not worship at all—live under a roof, have plenty of food, clean water to drink, a good education, body autonomy, safe streets. freedom to me is easy access to voting. it's living in a system void of all religious dogma, and a world without its extremism, bloodshed and sanctimony (people don't need religion to be good and do the right thing.) freedom is the right to peacefully protest inequality, bigotry, oppression and autocracy. freedom to me means democracy.

freedom to me is a big sky stretching over an expanse of sea. a vista. a view to the horizon. clean air to breathe. the feel of wind in my hair, rain and mist on my cheeks.