To Belong in Freedom
‘If you love something, set it free.’
It is said ‘If you love something, set it free.’
When you belong and someone belongs to you, what is it that ties you together?
Marriage, children, blood, background, society’s expectations, a promise made some years ago, a ring on your finger or your own fear of loneliness in old age.
That which truly belongs to you can have no labels. It is love, without compulsion. Like caged birds and chained pets, affection is not tied with a string. Expensive well bred dogs are domesticated in an apartment shared with humans, with only minutes of ‘walks’ outside on a leash, sparingly planned conjugal visits with other appropriate breeds and then birth control is meticulously forced on them. They are victims of toxic human needs and insecurities labelled as love. Just as birds in a pretty cage that are fed organic food and given exotic names, their inherent right to fly is taken away in exchange, without consent. All beings have a right to their natural habitat, a life in the wild and in the skies, roads, jungles, rivers or wherever they belong. If we truly love them, we must feed them and care for them , but we must not clip their wings and ascertain our racial dominance in the name of love.
That which is yours will belong to you effortlessly. Human relationships with real emotions survive the tests of time when set free. Like fresh leaves grow from cement crevices out of nowhere.
These wild parakeets recognise my voice, they trust me, they know me. I returned home after some months and found them perched by the window, blinking at me between incoherent calls. I had not laid out their favourite sunflower seeds yet but they were here to greet me. No human friend came to see me, probably because humans need a motive, agendas and a set of conditioned reasons to connect.
I don’t feed them everyday, but they still visit. Our eyes smile at each other and the evening sets in myriad shades of orange in blue. In an unsaid bond of companionship we speak in silence. And by a subtle magic of the universe we belong to each other, in freedom.
For love to remain set it free,
Lubna
You may like to read her book, 50 Shots of Love: India’s First Book of Monoku Poems and Illustrations
