Freedom is personal
Roasted corn cut from the cob a few minutes ago goes on top of fresh spinach, red bell pepper pieces, sliced olives, juicy blackberries, baby cucumbers, feta cheese, and finally cherry tomatoes right from the garden. This is my beautiful salad for 4th of July dinner. I am enjoying it with a glass of champagne and a fresh bowl of fruit. Watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple make my mouth water just thinking about them. I feel content sitting on the patio with my husband sharing our meal. Today I was thinking about choices and freedom. Interesting that I started here with our food.
My vegetarian, gluten free self is married to a man who likes a steak and eats his corn on the cob smothered in butter. His beverage tonight is beer. Over the time we’ve been together, he has embraced my salads as the best he has ever had. So I take heart in the fact that he has chosen to eat at least some vegetables not smothered in butter. Choices again. We’ve learned to respect each other’s choices in many ways, but definitely about food.
Perhaps because we have been going full steam for the last week, have been to a long awaited concert and also to the lake within four days, we are now are ready for a night off. Choices again. Lovely that we both made the same choice at the same time I must say.
Yoga, then some mall time, and now a lovely evening with beautiful fruits and vegetables and champagne on the patio. This was a beautiful day. Our evenings recently surround a family of Robins who built a nest in our pergola. We have been monitoring and celebrating the hatching of new babies. Watching the parents fly back and forth all day looking for food for these needy babies. Quite exciting to be part of it.
The words choices and freedom flowing through my head today. Freedom to sit and watch nature unfold on my patio. Making a choice to eat certain kinds of food. Choosing to open my heart or hold on to old painful stories. It really is all about choices.
Freedom is personal. Freedom lets me choose to be me without anyone’s permission. Maya Angelou’s words come to me “The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness.” Yes! Lets choose to thrive.