Hemispheres

I am climbing into the great blue unknown, my wings let loose, the earth far below. I can see higher and farther than I ever imagined. I can see possibility.

Without a cage, a tether, a burden, I am free to be anyone I choose, free to be a truer version of me, free to be selfish and happy and spontaneous. 

Far beneath my feet, scattered atop the earth, are the remnants of what was. A short time ago, I would have descended and swept the soil and ash into tidy piles, rebuilt the fallen frameworks. But these wings hold me steady, graceful; they draw me higher.

I am soaring, ever higher and farther, until the debris is out of sight. For once, the others can sweep and tidy and hold the walls together...  

The crux of this life is that it is my own and I can choose how to live it. What I have been given by circumstances, instructed to do by my elders, tempted into by weakness, beguiled into by lovers, I need not carry with me. I need only do myself justice, so that in the moments when I am alone in this great blue space, far from the noise and distraction and constant tugging of others, I am happy, proud, fulfilled.

And so I choose to fly. Into a precious dream, a full life, a lighter sense of self.

All this time I was searching for roots when what I really needed was wings...