I bought my freedom yesterday. It takes the form of a round the world ticket. I will not be slave to the clock, not to rent payments or utility bills, not to a job that has to pay for those, not to my possession, however few they are.
I spent quite a chunk of hard earned money (that what it feels like anyway) and I did so without hesitation or pain. I did it gladly and couldn’t have been happier once the booking was confirmed.
I hear often how jealous people are about my travel plans and how bold I am for daring to go on a journey around the world. This is my second RTW trip.
I’m writing about the travelling aspect of this particular trip on my actual travel blog. Here I am writing about other aspects. But both go hand in hand.
Get this: I am free to go on a trip around the world.
You, dear reader, may or may not be able to grasp what I am saying intellectually, but try and imagine what that feels like (especially when you’ve never done anything like it yourself).
Almost everyone I know raises their concerns for income, a home, social security, health and what I’ll be doing with all my stuff. I don’t share these concerns and always find myself in a position to dissuade them.
I don’t live to work. I have worked a lot in order to save the money for this trip and have some left over by the time I return. I am a frugal traveller. I will carry only the necessities with me and you’d be surprised how little we really do need. Most so-called creature comforts are luxuries that a vast part of human kind has no concept of, has never experienced and might very well be astonished to discover even exist. And that includes such a simple thing as opening a tab with water running out of it.
The number of my blessings is legion. Beginning with my place of birth.
Ending with the freedom to live my life as I desire.
I can live just about anywhere I want to. I can take up a job without much difficulty and do it well. Or I decide to strike out on my own and become a freelance writer, who struggles to make a living, but I would still be free to love it, because I’d be following my heart.
I’ll be “homeless” for a little while, but never without a roof over my head. And I’ll have a place to return to and then build a new home for myself. I will travel and see new places. I will get to write whenever I want, which is the freedom most dear to me.
If you consider how many people on this wide Earth, this tiny speck of dust, don’t have any that, not even remotely, you wonder how you got so lucky.
Any restraints we do live under have been put there by ourselves. Believe it or not. Any imposition on our individual and collective freedom has been allowed by us, perhaps even been caused by us.
We’re the ruling force on this planet, nobody else. We have allowed it and continue to do so, every aspect of it. If you’re in any position of power or not. This is our world.
Obviously choosing freedom, and with that hopefully happiness, starts on an individual basis. And we have to continue to choose it every day.
Now we are free.
Now we are not.
Which one is it going to be for you?
2clouds 