Blog: Born Free

Featured image: Orange Finch

The wind through the trees gives them breath to breathe. The wind through the trees becomes part of the spirit of the tree, its knurled ruggedness, its stately stature, its longevity, or not. The wind is also the earth's breath. It makes the earth come alive with wind-swept cliffs, and tumbled rocks on a shore polished by tumbling in the sand as the waves break along a shore, waves that are caused by the wind.

The breath of the wind also gives breathe to me. It is a part of me, myself, soul and spirit. It is part of the rules and thoughts in which I operate. I have always understood the wind as wild and free. Do you know “free as the wind blows” that Andy Williams song, “Born Free?”

Born free, as free as the wind blows


As free as the grass grows


Born free to follow your heart


Live free and beauty surrounds you…

What I came to know when I was 6 years old and in kindergarten was that I loved the freedom that a drip of paint had on a piece of thin newsprint as I would begin to paint which was my favorite activity in kindergarten. I could make my own marks on the paper to be part of the drips. The paintings were innocent. But, what I became aware of that year in school was something that would follow me all of my life. I became aware of the fact that it was not going to be easy to entrap me, for I was more like that drip on that thin newsprint and the colorful marks made along side that drip and the other drips. I became aware of the freedom that happens when you allow another to follow who they are naturally. I became aware that others did not always like that, and I became aware that it was something I would forever fight for.

The life of freedom for me is like the life of the wind moving through the trees.