Like so many words in our language, the word "freedom" can have a range of meanings, depending on the times, the event or individual circumstances.
Freedom can range from being released after incarceration to feeling a personal release from the worries of the day.
It can last for years or for just a few hours, again depending on the circumstances from which we have been freed.
In my lifetime, I have felt major freedom at the end of school years.
After a nine-month schedule, where virtually every block of every day was filled---often from 2:30 a.m. until I dropped at night---with responsibilities or deadlines, the last day of each school year dramatically illustrated my personal freedom.
My recollection of that exhilarating feeling comes most often in the image of walking to my car in the school parking lot, loaded down with stuff to take home for the summer, throwing it inside the car with no disciplined organization, getting behind the wheel and driving off into a summer vacation and to the "heaven" of "sleeping in" most mornings until July 15.
When July 15 came each year, I would begin sensing a gradual loss of my freedom.
That calendar day signaled to me that it was time to resume training my body and mind to get up earlier each day and to set aside time for planning what I was gonna do in my classroom and with my students during the upcoming school year.
By the time August came, I was following a schedule and knowing that it was going to get tighter when the calendar changed into September and another school year began.
From that point on, it was almost nonstop.
Each June, letting loose of the rigid discipline needed for keeping it all together as much as humanly possible during the school year gave me a sense of freedom like none other in my life.
I have felt freedom in many other situations over the years, but for me, the school scenario provides the most notable example.
Today I'm feeling a sense of freedom which pales in comparison to the end of school years.
Still, it's a good feeling to know that I can get into the car with the dogs and just take off for several hours during this day, using my time exactly the way I choose.
The only restrictions: make sure to meet Bill and Willie for a visit and lunch at a pretty lake in Montana where they'll be fishing and kayaking and to get home in time to bring up the horses from pasture.
I'm going on this day trip almost guiltless.
BTW: do we ever have time in our lives when we aren't feeling guilty about something?
Happily, guilt can come in degrees, just like freedom.
In my case, I could stay home and finish mowing the lawn, but I have given myself a license to decide that the lawn can wait one day.
It's been a summer of lawn mowing, house cleaning, gardening, going to appointments and getting ready for "the next thing," of which there have been a multitude this summer---all good.
But when a chance for freedom, albeit brief, stares you in the face, you must embrace it and make the most of it.
All this is necessary, of course, to prepare us for the next marathon of living life and answering to life's continuing responsibilities.
So, that's what I'll do.
The dogs and I will have a good time, and I'll stop wherever I wish to take some pictures or just mill around with Foster and Bridie amidst the summer beauty.
Tomorrow: good bye freedom and back to the mowing and other "to do's."
Happy Tuesday.
Speaking of freedoms, Annie is at the stressed-out stage, getting ready for her special brand of freedom: walking the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain.
It all begins early next week after she has traveled thousands of miles by plane and train to get to the spot in France where she'll start walking.
She has released another blog post overnight dealing with preparation.
Again, if you wish to follow her amazing journey, which will last through the rest of August and most of September, you can go to her link and sign up for notifications.
It should be a fun trip to take vicariously through her words and her photos.
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