FREEDOM MONTH: DAY 14: “Let those who wish have their respectability- I wanted freedom, freedom to indulge in whatever caprice struck my fancy, freedom to search in the farthermost corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous, and the romantic.”― Richard Halliburton
I did not know who the author was, so I looked him up. Interesting character, I would have hung out with him. So I really like the quote more now.
When I was young and travelling, mostly by hitch-hiking around the world, I was thought crazy by so many people and I had amazing adventures, the like of which would no longer be possible. The world is not what it was in the early 1970s. I am no longer who I was then.
I am grateful I did not listen to those who told me I needed to go to college or get married or settle down or in, in any way whatsoever. I did what I felt compelled to do. See the world, have experiences that fed my soul and introduced me to a world that is so much wider and more interesting than the tiny place I came from.
I never regretted it. I would travel back to visit and see the narrow lives going on where I had left. My friends did all the “respectable” things. They hated their lives. I had some more adventures and some of them were not as fun as others, but I learned and I grew. And I gained a sense of independence that is still mine. It will never leave me.
We all have a self. A person who inhabits us. An individual who is interesting and interested. We have buried this self under layers of trying to “fit in” and some of us are struggling to find that self. I hope we all find it and love it and let it be itself. Not working to fit the mold of who we are told we should be, not living to satisfy someone else’s idea of what we are here to do. Recovery opens our hearts and gets rid of all the things we “should” be or do. Let that continue to deepen and unfold. It is the journey of a lifetime and the ultimate adventure. (P.S. It is also the source of our spiritual connection to that Power.)
Dolphin Hug 