Freedom.

To know the meaning of such a word.

I used to think it was laughter

underneath the morning sun

or the evening sunset,

beneath a pool of liquid color.

I used to wonder

if maybe it was relief

of something great or something small

sometimes no burden at all,

but a thought made real

through simple imagination.

Perhaps it's in a child's eyes,

their smile, their tears,

trust and fear,

a child holds nothing back, you see.

Maybe it was simply that my hands were free.

Unbound, unchained, unshackled

whatever words to make you comprehend

that feeling some may never know,

to move without a tethered weight.

I used to think it many things,

but to know for certain it took many years and more.

Freedom is to feel that weight,

to see the sun rise up and fall again

on a line fixed before it knew to rise or fall at all.

To see a child's smile sometimes fade behind their fear,

to be free to see all that they feel

to see the trust that was once lost and found again.

To be tethered with the strongest thread,

and willingly so,

for to surrender is to open eyes and finally see

that freedom is found in love

and love is found on bended knees.

"But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." ~ Romans 6:22-23