My journey had landed me in Texas at the home of yet another friend. Having taken roughly two days to catch up on my sleep following the marathon of packing, flying and arranging of schedules—I was ready to face the new day. I woke rested and refreshed to an empty house. My hosts had apparently gotten their boys off to school and perhaps thinking I needed more rest had left for the day.
Taking advantage of the quiet environment I decided to answer some of the many emails that had accumulated while I had been traveling. Booting up my trusty rusty laptop I was dismayed to find I had no internet connection. After doing all the routine things to determine if it was operator error, computer glitch or something else, I surmised that for some unknown reason the wi-fi connection had failed. Now what should to do with my day?
Fortunately my resourcefulness was not limited to one friend in the area. I arranged to use the wi-fi connection at another friend’s home, packed up my computer and grabbed a few things in preparation of an afternoon away. Walking out toward the street I made an unfortunate discovery—I was locked in. The property was secured with a heavy metal gate at the entrance to the driveway. The gate held fast with a padlock for which I had no key. Uttering a few choice words directed at the absent friend responsible for my incarceration I began looking for an alternate means of egress. Finding none I had to wonder at my imprisonment—was it an oversight or had it been intentional? The front door had been left open…what reason could there have been for locking the gate?
Thankfully I had not locked the outside door to the house—an act I would later rethink. Retrieving a stepladder, and positioning it as close as possible to the fence, I mounted my escape. Standing on the stepladder I raised my leg up and over balancing on a small bench positioned on the other side. Repeating the process with the other leg I had the urge to giggle as I wondered at what the neighbors were thinking. My humor was short lived I winced in pain at the splinters embedded in my hands from the aforementioned gate.
By the time my friend arrived I was spouting some colorful terminology directed at the gate and not just describing it as green. Now all I had to do to complete my escape was climb into the truck—easier said than done. The only thing more embarrassing than climbing IN to the second seat of the pick up truck was getting OUT of said truck. The whole incident became hysterically funny by the running commentary of my friend’s father-in-law, who felt obliged to offer instructions on how to accommodate my rather top heavy stature into the tight space. Amid laughter and great pains to maneuver first my bottom half and then my, much discussed, upper body I was finally free.
Looking back over the events of that day and what followed I find myself thinking of all the things that confine us. I woke that morning free of pain—a respite from the fibromyalgia that has kept me bound by pain. My computer could not adequately perform its duties without the use of the internet revealed I’m tied to technology. Discovering the locked gate called attention to the physical barriers that imprison and hold us captive. The tight space of the truck’s interior confined and limited my movement. I became restricted by space.
Then there are those forms of bondage borne out of fear. The locked gate that hindered my departure earlier in the day prevented me from entering later that evening. My decision to leave the door unlocked caused such undue anxiety to my hosts that they refused to allow me back in their home. Their concern over a would be intruder that hypothetically managed to traverse the locked gate, successfully avoid 3 dogs and enter their home unbidden obviously outweighed any concern they had for my well being. I can’t imagine living so weighed down by paranoia and fear.
Their reaction was so out of proportion it could only be borne of fear. They not only refused to allow me back into their home that night, they felt it necessary to remove all traces that I had even been in their home. The next morning I found my personal belongings had been put outside the gate with the trash. How sad it must be to live in such bondage. Fear binds, confines and boxes us in—freedom restores and liberates us to enjoy life without fear.
My friends, don’t live in bondage—whether mental bondage due to a lack of confidence, emotional bondage borne of approval seeking, the societal bondage to be accepted or peer pressures to conform. Be who you were created to be—love freely, live fully and enjoy the journey.
makingreatime 