All She Ever Wanted Was Her Freedom

She went to faraway places, she left behind all that was familiar, she left her place of comfort.

She explored, experimented, and yet she couldn’t escape.

She searched for freedom through the eyes of others, she thought someone else might be holding the key.

She felt that empty space and thought it needed to be filled by another.

She dulled the pain by chasing the thrill.

She chased the next distraction in the form of a new person, a new place, a new gadget!

Like a drug that kept drawing her in, searching for the next high but never truly fulfilled. The Buddha said chasing our addictions only causes suffering, but an addict doesn’t want to hear that.

Then one day the world shut down and the universe took over. There was nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. She was forced to stop, listen and pay attention.

Right there and then she began the work that needed to be done.

As she sat in the stillness, the silence began to speak - “surrender” it pleaded with her.

And in that space of nothing, the words of her teachers came to her. Those words that she tried so many times to push away because she knew that path was not an easy one to take.

But there was no escape, no running away this time. So did the only thing she could.

She raised her hands in complete acceptance and shouted, “I give up, I surrender!”

And at that moment came the freedom she had sought, finally, she let herself be free. Her freedom wasn’t out there nor in the eyes of another, she was holding the key all along.

Now she knew it was time to stop chasing, and grasping at temporary pleasures because no amount of distraction was going to change the truth.

Then she became deeply grateful for all her teachers, especially those that came disguised as lovers and friends, for they taught her the greatest lessons of all.

Love begins with loving you.

And in the silence and surrender, she finally realised she was always home.

The mind can create a heaven or a hell - it is up to us to decide its direction.