F is for Freedom

“Freedom, in any case, is only possible by struggling for it” – Albert Einstein-

Visualize a line with zero in the middle and as you move to the left it says -1, -2 and so on. As you move to the right it says +1 and +2 etc.

If we want freedom then we have to make the decisions and choices that move us to the right side of that scale. The formula for freedom is simply to aim for more pluses than minuses.

Every time we make bad choices for our body, mind and spirit, we move to the minus side of neutral.

The thing is that we are constantly making choices each day and we can end up with plus 100 or minus 100 every day.

What we will begin to notice over time is that the more plus’ we have, the more plus’…

a compass would tell of a tale,

that all men must cleave to a place.

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in this race we run,

in search of peace that eases us to our rest,

where the heart leads us to the ends of the earth,

just to find where he is at.

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O North!

I entered your forth and thought you knew me,

but I was a friend you just met.

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O South!

I sought you for an abode,

but the house you gave me was no resting place.

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O East!

I ate at your feast and tried to belong,

but you were a tongue that reminds me that I was a stranger.

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O West!

in you I thought I found rest,

but you constantly leave me thirsty for a quiet you never had.

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and to find peace is to find home,

for they say home is where…

It was a time of peerless freedom. I was a young Yogi travelling with a backpack, pen, diary and a camera travelling through villages, walking on the mud roads of rural India, in search of stories.

I had just finished a two-day assignment for an Indian magazine, documenting the popular cattle fair that took place around the ancient temple site of Pushkar. And while at it I had learnt that after this fair in the ancient city of Brahma, the camels will travel for weeks on road through the desert and forests, crossing the oldest hill range on earth, the Aravalli to take part in another fair, hundreds of miles down the western coast in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. I wanted to find that route and travel with them, with the camel tribes documenting, and writing about this beautiful, unusual journey.

But on my way, I couldn’t find…

Today, the nation goes back into lockdown

Social Distancing, evening closure

Will corona be part of our future?

Keeping activity down

@douryeh