Of Limits and Imaginary Lines…

“From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines.”
― Walt Whitman

 

Since I talked about courage last night, tonight I thought for sure I’d be speaking about brains or a heart or even i ride in a balloon but it looks like there is more to say about freedom. Walt Whitman knew of the imaginary lines we draw or have drawn for us out of the good intentions for others, defining who we are and the appropriate paths our lives and or conversations might take. Oh one or two of those lines, we are told, will show us direction and it won’t feel so bad or be so heavy, rather like silk. But then once we allow those first chains (let’s call them the minimum) , those of parents and school / society, it becomes all too easy to start accepting more until what was once silk has become steel or wired ropes that bind and constrain until we end up bound in our actions and thoughts.

What happens when we chafe under these constraints and our lives feel like we’re sleepwalking in a role written for quite a different actor than we find ourselves to be. We can free ourselves but first we need to acknowledge the chains are there and look at each one determining where it came from and being willing to put it aside. The first ones are easy to take off. The hardest ones are the ones that have been there the longest for it is all too easy to confuse them with the free self. Oh they can come off and perhaps our resolution for them to do so is either our truest measure or the measure of our truth.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized

 

Evening FlightEvening Flight by G A Rosenberg

 

Eyewash MandalaEye-Wash by G A Rosenberg