Recently, I was asked to participate in a campaign that encourages a greater degree of freedom within a woman. And that got me thinking about what freedom actually means to me. Here are some thoughts… raw and beautiful.
Freedom to me is…
- having the voice to say no to sex, even to a partner
- being able to buy a motorbike and ride it across the country
- being able to wear t-shirts and jeans, and walk down the street without fear of being touched or spoken to inappropriately
- being able to go to a public park in the middle of the day, lie on the grass and day-dream
- driving out to eat ice cream in the middle of the night
- living alone and having my privacy respected
- having the opportunity to gamble with my career, because hey, unless I take a few risks I’ll never know what I’m capable of
- having a whole bunch of great friends with whom I can talk about anything under the sun
- sitting with a cup of chai at 8am in a sunny living room and having nothing to worry about
- going to a club to dance, dancing my heart away and returning home safe
- being able to explore religion and spirituality on my own terms and in my own time. These are very personal things and needn’t be handed down as a compulsion
- being able to go on a long train-trip, reading books all the way and soaking in the country side, and not being commented on or looked at shadily
- the joy of making the choices I intuitively want to make, that I may not know much about but feel good about making those choices anyway
- being able to marry the man I choose, even if he is differently abled and of another religion
- being able to flirt with a charming man without worrying about the repercussions of doing so in a public space
- being able to make informed choices when it comes to food, and being aware of the chances I take with unhealthy food
- wearing the colours I want to wear and not being told to tame it down
- wearing the jewelry I want to wear, and not having to choose between gold and diamonds
- being able to switch off my phone and disconnect from the whole world for at least one week in a year
- walking into a lift and being able to smile at someone else there
- holding hands with a loved one, and walking down the street
- being able to work, explore my abilities, build a business or help grow one
- being able to wear my hair the way I want to
- being able to sleep on a roof top, soaking in the stars and the moon
- being able to sit on a hill top, alone, watching the clouds stream past and around, listening to the sounds of the breeze
- being able to wear make up, and in the colours I choose to wear them
- being able to get a divorce, a way out of an unhappy marriage and finding my footing again
And I think the list could go on. What does freedom mean to you?
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