"Freedom's just another word for...."
"What's the one thing you have lost - or would be afraid to lose - which would limit (or has already limited) your personal Freedom?"~@freedomtribe
When I saw the question above many thoughts ran through my mind of all I have already lost. Yet here I am on Steem writing a post about what would I be afraid to lose. How ironic.
Does the question then become do I write about my mentally abusive first marriage? Having endometriosis so bad that there are weeks where you do not even have the freedom to leave the house? Having your life torn apart watching the person you love lose everything his family had worked for due to using hard drugs?
How about being a single Mom and working in a man's world full time with a very bad 1970's school education always proving that being a woman didn't make you weak? Here is a kicker for ya, dropping your only child off at a bus stop so he can go to a different country where he doesn't speak the language, has no money and no place to live?
Top that off with working for a company for most of your life, going into work on a Friday morning, being told the company was closing its doors in thirty minutes so pack your personal stuff and see ya! The best part about that one is the fact that my husband worked there too.
We then move on to being lied to about why a friend wanted to hire me so badly for a job at a company he helped run. I was offered the world. A world I didn't want but had to take because someone had to have a job and pay for insurance. A few months into my new job it became clear why I was hired. I was given a promotion and a whole department to call my own. My friend knew I would hate this new job. It's why he lied to my face while smiling when offering me the fake job in the first place.
The friend knew if he had offered me the real job he wanted me to do I would have declined his offer. Yes, I was that good at that job he wanted me to do. He also knew that once I was working at the company he had more control of what my job was.
At what point, when each morning bile rises in your throat knowing you have to go to a job you hate each day, do you use your freedom of free will? I lasted a month. I quit. Hubby was not happy. No joy in Mudville that day.
Let's not forget about the four back surgeries I have had, the last being a lower lumbar fusion. The second back surgery was botched by the Doctor. I had to wait six months in my bed. The Doctor could not do another surgery to try and repair what he had messed up until I was mostly healed from the last one. My bedroom is about 13 feet deep by 15 feet wide with a slanted roof.
When I was sixteen I knew the exact job I wanted when I got out of school. It took until I was in my late thirties to get my dream job through a weird twist of fate. Three years later that dream job was taken from me due to health reasons. The place did everything they could to keep my position open for a year but I was getting sicker and sicker so they had to let me go.
Let's call the above the highlight list of loss.
"What's the one thing you have lost - or would be afraid to lose - which would limit (or has already limited) your personal Freedom?"~@freedomtribe
I have lost what most people would consider 'their personal freedom' more times then I care to count. Yet each big event, smaller events too that I have not written about while devastating at its time and place in my life, took away my personal freedom, yet I survived to write this post.
Life, your life, is a chain of events that happens to you for a reason. To learn from, to grow, to become a better you if, IF, you chose the freedom you always have to make the best out of what life throws at you.
No one person, no one event, can ever rob you of the freedom to grow as a person from your past mistakes and circumstances but yourself. No one but YOU can take away the freedom you have in your mind. There are always choices in life. Not always the choices you want but there are always choices. How you deal with the freedom of free will is up to you and only you.
Never forget: Everything and I mean everything is connected.
Someday take a good long look at the big events in your life and follow your path. Think about what you learned along the way for good or bad to make you the person you are today. Do you like who you are? Do you like where you are? Connect the dots, learn all the lessons shoved in your life for you to learn from. Once you have a good grip on what your life has taught you so far take your freedom of free will and start changing what you don't like.
Freedom is hope.
There is always Hope.
Make someone smile today. It can not hurt you and it might save their life.
Love,
Snook
This post was written for the FREEDOM Challenge put on by @freedomtribe
All photos used in this post found here
And so, there is always hope. Where there is hope there is promise.
You may not think it, but this has been a tremendous pick me up today.
I ALWAYS need to remember: It took everything, every single thing great and small to get me to right here, right now. Right here, right now, is pretty damn good.
Thank you. I have an idea about what this cost you emotionally and mentally, and I truly appreciate it.
Thank You! You made this post worth writing.
I owe you for that!
HUGS
Woof... that is a rough first half to read! Although, I'm a touch confused... I didn't really click what the "A few months into my new job it became clear why I was hired" job was... I've read it a couple of times, and still don't get what it was that you were "needed" and what it was that you were required to do....
Anyway, despite all of that... you still retain the freedom of hope, it is an amazing lesson.... that this is always there, and can't be taken away by another person or outside force, but is our own to lose ourselves.
sorry about that. I hope I fixed that section to make it more clear. Could you do me a favor and let me know if it makes more sense?
Thank you for stopping to read!!
Ah... I think it is only because you are not wanting to name specific things that I can't get it!
Sending you positive thoughts. You've made me smile quite often. 😊
Thank you!!! Miss You!
I am glad you survived all this and it put you in the perfect place to be my online friend! My life wouldn't be the same without you!!
<3 <3 <3
Your balance is below $0.3. Your account is running low and should be replenished. You have roughly 10 more @dustsweeper votes. Check out the Dustsweeper FAQ here: https://steemit.com/dustsweeper/@dustsweeper/dustsweeper-faq
You're amazing. Seriously. Always an inspiration to me. You've been through hell, but you still make people smile every day. THAT is a life well lived.
Indeed. Love you!
Thank You. I can not wait for that hug!!! :D
Ah, man, life has certainly thrown itself at you, huh! Sorry for all that crazy mad HURT you've gone through. You are soooo right though -
We can be so enslaved by what has happened to us we forget to LIVE, and forget the past is all just in our mind and no longer exists. It's hard work to live in the now, having learnt from our mistakes, bad choices, or just the stuff that's thrown at us, but it's work with doing. May the rest of your live be free from heart attack and suffering! Boo to prisons!
Thank You!!!
You are very correct!! We need more people Living and not looking backward.
Thank you for stopping and your great comment!
Wow that was a rough read indeed. Life is ups n downs, twists n turns, just gotta keep your head up and keep rolling along.
yeah, sorry about that.
truly inspiring and honest, thank you for sharing such an emotional story. It is so easy to give up but there is always hope and we are all stronger than we think.
I so agree with this!!
Thank you so much for stopping to read and your great comment!!
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue 467